Stolen Memories
by LuckyLadybug
Summary: COMPLETED WITH CHAPTERS 19 AND 20! Please read and leave a nice review! A mysterious boy survives a car crash. Who is he? And what will happen when his path crosses again with the YGO gang? This is not a yaoi!
1. Survivor

Yu-Gi-Oh!  
Stolen Memories  
By Lucky_Ladybug  
  
  
Notes: As always, the YGO characters aren't mine! Neither is the title, which is JP's ^^ Thanx to him, and to BakurasGurl66, who inspired the idea for this thing ^^ This is not yaoi! ^_~ Hope y'all enjoy!  
  
  
"This was some car crash," the police officer said, shaking his head. The automobiles had become hopelessly entangled and twisted with one another, and finally had burst into flames at the side of the road.  
  
"Tragic," his partner agreed solemnly.  
  
"No one knows quite how it happened," the officer went on. "Some people returning from work just saw them all collide and catch on fire."  
  
"I'm supposing that everyone in the cars perished," his partner said softly.  
  
"Yes," the first officer nodded, walking around to the other side of the wreck and suddenly gasping. "Oh my!"  
  
"What is it?" his partner cried. She came around to see and stopped short. Laying on the pavement was a boy's bloodied body, apparently thrown from one of the cars.  
  
Quickly the first officer knelt next to the battered form. "He's still alive," he cried in surprise. "I don't know how they missed him. Get an ambulance here immediately!"  
****  
"Man, did you hear about that horrible car crash on the freeway?" Joey asked his friends the next day at school between classes. They were sitting at their desks waiting for the rest of the class and the teacher to arrive. "The one about fifty miles away?"  
  
"I sure did," Yugi said sadly.  
  
"No one knows what caused it, but everyone involved died," Tristan added grimly.  
  
"Except for one," Bakura spoke up.  
  
"Really?" Tea exclaimed.  
  
"Yes," Bakura nodded. "A boy, not older than any of us. They found him laying at the side of the road. He's still in critical condition."  
  
"I hope he makes it," Yugi said fervently.  
  
The others all agreed.  
  
"I wonder if it was anyone we know," Tea said suddenly, her eyes shining worriedly.  
  
"Hey, we're all here, aren't we?" Joey said, gesturing around.  
  
"Yes . . ." Tea said slowly, and then a cold realization came over her. "Except Kaiba!"  
  
The others were stunned silent. Was it possible? Could Seto Kaiba have been involved in that deadly car crash and wound up being the only survivor?  
  
"I haven't seen him all day," Joey spoke up finally, blinking. "I didn't even stop to think about it until now."  
  
Tea wrung her hands frantically. "No . . . no, it can't be him!" she cried.  
  
The teens found it hard to concentrate on that class, or on the next one. Who was the boy who had been hurt? Could it have been Seto? If it wasn't him, then where was Seto, anyway? They had never known the aloof boy to skip school before.  
  
Then, after lunch, the door to the history class opened and the missing boy walked in.  
  
The five teens leapt up. "Kaiba!" Tea cried, feeling immensely relieved. "You're alright!"  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't I be?" He came closer and sat at his desk in front of Joey. The others could see that he looked a bit roughed up. His bangs, usually combed carefully into place, were now wildly flying in all directions. His right eye looked red, as if someone had punched him hard there, and his cheek was cut. He shot Joey a Look that said "Don't bother me", but the Brooklyn boy couldn't resist.  
  
"Whoa! What the heck happened to you?!" Joey gasped.  
  
"Nothing." Seto pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at the blood.  
  
"We thought you'd been in that terrible car accident last night," Tea told him.  
  
Seto grunted. "Well, I wasn't." The cut stung and he winced involuntarily.  
  
"Did someone beat you up, Kaiba?" Yugi asked worriedly.  
  
"No. *I* beat *them* up." Seto finished cleaning the cut and turned to face the others. His injured eye was half-closed, something he tried to hide by brushing his wild bangs as low as he could get them.  
  
"They must've given you quite a poundin', too," Joey said, shaking his head.  
  
"Do you know who it was?" Yugi wanted to know.  
  
"No." Blood dripped down from under Seto's bangs.  
  
"Kaiba, you're still bleeding!" Tea said in alarm.  
  
Seto's eyes narrowed in frustration as he pulled out the handkerchief again and held it against his forehead.  
  
"Why on earth would someone hurt you like this?" Bakura gasped.  
  
Seto didn't answer. He had no idea himself. The men had came out of nowhere and just started beating him without giving a reason. Then when Seto had fought back, they had shoved him forward roughly into a brick wall and ran off. When Seto had regained consciousness, he had had no clue how long he had been out of it. Of course he wasn't about to say any of that to Yugi and his friends. "I'm fine," the blue-eyed boy said finally.  
  
"You always say that!" Tea said in frustration.  
  
Seto grunted.  
  
"Well, now that we're all here, the question remains—who was the boy injured in that car wreck?" Bakura mused.  
  
The teens all looked at each other. None of them had any clue.  
  
"It probably wasn't anyone we know," Yugi said finally, "but I hope he pulls through, whoever he is."  
****  
Anita, doing her rounds at the hospital, came into the room at the end of the hall for her last stop. Here lay the mysterious boy from the car crash, which had been three days ago now. Anita checked his vital signs and then went about her task of redressing his wounds.  
  
She had never seen anyone like him before, with his soft blonde hair and naturally tanned skin. He was adorned in various gold jewelry, perhaps of Egyptian origin, and he was wearing white trousers and a sleeveless, hooded, lavender shirt. His clothes had been washed the night he was brought in and then returned to him.  
  
Anita, finished with bandaging the boy's injuries, now stood back and just stared at him for a bit. "You poor thing," she said softly. "Who are you? Where are you from?" The boy had had no identification on him when he'd been found, and so he was simply a John Doe. What secrets did he hold in his mind? Did he have any family anywhere?  
  
The boy had many abrasions all over his body and he was suffering from a bad concussion. If he would only awaken he might be alright—but he was in a deep coma and the chances of him reviving were not great. If only Anita could find someone who knew the boy!  
  
This whole experience reminded her too much of something similar that had happened a while back, when a previous John Doe had been brought in. That one had been beaten seriously and was half-dead when he'd been found. That boy was alive and well now, but Anita wasn't sure that the same would be able to be said for this one.  
  
A soft moan came from the direction of the bed and Anita turned, her thoughts interrupted. Was she wrong? Could it be . . .?  
  
The boy stirred, slowly raising a hand to rub his head.  
  
"Are you awake?" Anita said softly.  
  
The boy's eyes fluttered opened and Anita was taken aback to see the deep lavender hue. "Where . . . where am I?" He spoke with an odd, vaguely accented voice.  
  
"You're in a hospital, honey," Anita told him.  
  
"Hospital?" The boy spoke the word with obvious distaste as his gaze drifted all around the room and then came back to Anita. "What is wrong with me?"  
  
"You were in a bad car accident," Anita explained.  
  
The words meant nothing to the boy. He blinked, looking confused. "Am . . . am I badly hurt?"  
  
Anita paused. "Well . . . now that you're awake, you're already on the road to recovery. Can you tell me what happened to you?"  
  
The boy looked at her with frightened eyes. "No," he said at last. "No, I do not remember."  
  
Anita smiled comfortingly. "Well, that's actually quite normal for a victim of head trauma."  
  
The boy paused, a wild look in his eyes now. "You do not understand," he cried. "I not only cannot recall the accident, but I do not remember anything about myself! I do not even know my name," he added softly.  
  
Anita hadn't been expecting that. "I'll go get the doctor," she told him gently.  
****  
The boy watched the doctor examine him, feeling a bit distasteful. He knew he didn't care much for hospitals or doctors, but he didn't know why.  
  
The doctor straightened up, looking thoughtful. He started writing something on his chart.  
  
"Well?" the boy demanded at last.  
  
"Well, what?" the doctor returned.  
  
"How am I?" the boy cried, feeling immensely annoyed.  
  
The doctor paused. "Well, you apparently received amnesia due to that painful concussion you sustained. And . . . unfortunately, more often not, memory loss that occurs because of head trauma never returns."  
  
The boy blinked. "I will be stranded without knowledge of myself for the rest of my life?!" he cried.  
  
"I didn't say that," the doctor said quickly. "Your memory may, indeed, return. I'm only warning you that it might not." He consulted his charts. "Other than the concussion, you're actually faring quite well. If you continue to improve, you might be able to be discharged very soon."  
  
Well, that was good news at any rate.  
****  
Later on that evening, Anita was working at the nurse's station when the phone rang. She quickly answered.  
  
"You know that John Doe kid?" a strange voice hissed.  
  
Anita blinked. "Yes," she said slowly. "What about him? Who is this?"  
  
"Never mind. Does he really have amnesia?"  
  
Suddenly Anita was angry. "I can't give information about the patients here out to just anyone!"  
  
With that the caller hung up, leaving Anita with the rude dial-tone sound. 


	2. A Warning

Anita stared at the phone for a long time afterward. Who was that? Why had they asked such a thing? And who in the world was the John Doe? Was he in danger? Maybe she'd better check on him and make sure he was still okay.  
  
Quietly Anita walked to the boy's room and pushed the door open. She discovered that he was wide awake and staring out the window. He turned to look when she opened the door and gave her a curious gaze.  
  
"How are you doing?" Anita asked.  
  
The boy shook his head. "I am . . . alright, I suppose," he said finally. He hated not knowing anything about himself. What was he like? Was he a good person? How had he gotten into the car wreck?  
  
"It's hard having amnesia, isn't it?" Anita said sympathetically.  
  
"Very hard," the boy said quietly.  
  
"Well, we'll have to give you a name until you can remember your own," Anita said resolutely.  
  
The boy gave her a shy smile. "I suppose so," he agreed.  
  
Anita sat down in the chair next to the bed. "Let's see . . . you look Egyptian," she mused. "But I'm afraid I don't know any good Egyptian names."  
  
The boy shook his head. "That's quite alright. I could just call myself by the name they gave me when I was brought in. What was it again?" He glanced at his hospital bracelet. John Doe. Such an odd-sounding name.  
  
"No, no." Anita stood up. "Give me a day or two and I promise I'll think of something."  
  
"With any luck, I should be out of here in a day or two," the boy replied.  
  
"Well, then I'll just have to think fast!" Anita said cheerfully.  
****  
Yugi couldn't figure things out. Seto hadn't told them what had happened to him, but he knew something was strange. Why would someone just come out of nowhere and beat the boy up? Seto had collected many enemies, but still, it seemed odd.  
  
Joey thought so too. "Man, we just can't have any peace around here!" he cried. "Somethin' weird always happens!" It hadn't been long since they'd solved their last puzzling case, which involved reuniting a little girl with her parents.  
  
"And here's something else weird," Tristan spoke up suddenly. "I just saw Weevil Underwood walking through town!"  
  
"Weevil Underwood?" Yugi exclaimed.  
  
"Oh great," Tea sighed. "I wonder what he wants?"  
  
"Actually . . ." Bakura paused. "I think he might be moving here."  
  
"You're kiddin' me!" Joey cried.  
  
Bakura shook his head. "I saw him too—and he was going into a home with a moving van out front."  
  
"Well, that's a surprise," Yugi said, blinking. "I never thought he'd be moving here."  
  
Joey shrugged. "Eh, well, we've got stranger things to worry about. I think someone's stalkin' us!"  
  
"Stalking us?!" Tea cried in disbelief.  
  
"Why do you think that, Joey?" Yugi asked.  
  
Joey paused for effect. "Okay. First Kaiba gets attacked. That was three days ago. Yesterday someone called me on the phone three times and never said a word! Then today when I was comin' over to your place, man, I swear, Yug—there was a car followin' me!"  
  
"What? Really, Joey?" Yugi exclaimed.  
  
"It stayed behind me for five blocks!" Joey said hotly.  
  
Tristan shrugged. He didn't seem too upset. "I dunno, Joey. Sounds to me like you're getting paranoid."  
  
"I am not!" Joey yelled indignantly.  
  
"Supposing there really is someone stalking us," Bakura spoke up in his soft voice. "Who on earth would want to do such a thing?!"  
  
"That's what we've gotta find out!" Joey cried.  
  
Tea wanted to agree with Tristan and say that it was probably just Joey's imagination, but the fact was, she wasn't sure. A strange person had stalked her last month, and she knew that it wasn't always easy to know when such a thing was happening. What if Joey was right?  
  
"Well," Yugi was saying now, "I think we should all be very careful until we find out what really is going on around here."  
  
The other teens agreed, but Tristan still seemed doubtful. "Just don't let your imaginations run away with you," he said.  
  
"I'm not, for cryin' out loud!" Joey burst out. "Don't you find it weird that some car would follow me for five blocks?!"  
  
"Well, yeah, if that's really what it was doing," Tristan replied.  
  
"Were you able to see who was in the car, Joey?" Bakura asked.  
  
Joey shook his head. "No, I wasn't. And that's another freaky thing—the windows were all tinted so I couldn't!"  
  
"That is strange!" Yugi exclaimed.  
  
Tea felt sick. She was tired of getting into life-threatening situations, and now it sounded like they wouldn't be able to avoid getting into a few more.  
  
Yugi sighed and opened his desk to put the chemistry textbook back. He gasped upon seeing a plain white envelope with his name pasted on the front in newspaper letters. "Huh? What's this?" he exclaimed, taking it out.  
  
"It looks ominous," Tea declared.  
  
Yugi lifted the flap and a single sheet of paper fell out, landing faceup on the desk.  
  
You think you're so smart  
But I'm smarter!  
  
Tea blinked. "It's . . . weird," she finished finally.  
  
"Man, you can say that again!" Joey said, messing his hair up in frustration. "What the heck does it even mean?!"  
  
Yugi shook his head. It didn't make sense to him either.  
****  
Seto put down the company reports he was going over and rubbed his eyes. He couldn't seem to concentrate, and he knew why. He had felt like someone was watching him ever since the incident three days before.  
  
He had collected many enemies over the years, and sometimes other companies sent spies to try to find out his latest technology, but this seemed . . . different somehow. Almost supernatural, he realized, remembering how his attackers just seemed to melt away into nothing. Of course, he *had* fallen unconscious after being slammed into the brick wall, so he supposed he might've been hallucinating just prior to going under.  
  
But what was next? Would whoever it was try going after Mokuba? Seto's eyes narrowed at the thought. He couldn't let that happen.  
  
He remembered how horrified Mokuba had been the other day. Seto had tried to clean himself up as best he could, but he still hadn't been able to hide his swollen eye and the cuts. He had tried to reassure his brother that it was nothing, but frankly . . . he wasn't so sure. He felt like something was just waiting to happen, and he didn't like the dark feeling he got when he thought about it.  
  
The telephone rang and jarred him out of his reverie. Shaking his head in faint irritation, he picked up the receiver. "Kaiba," he said coldly.  
  
"Seto Kaiba." He recognized Ishizu Ishtar's smooth voice instantly.  
  
"What is it?" Seto tapped his fingers impatiently. "I hope you're not going to tell me more of that nonsense about the past. I don't have time for that today—I'm too concerned with the present to worry about what happened thousands of years ago!"  
  
"Ah, I see." Seto knew that Ishizu was nodding and smiling in her mysterious way. "But unfortunately, Seto Kaiba, the events of the past are going to have an effect on the present. There is no way you can separate the two."  
  
Seto grunted. "Look, someone attacked me a few nights ago and I'm afraid they're going to go after Mokuba too. Unless you can tell me who did that and why, I'm not really interested."  
  
Ishizu seemed to ignore the last part as she went on speaking. "A great evil from the past has been reawakened," she told him. "Mortals are working with this supernatural force to unleash a terrible power on the world."  
  
"And that involves me how?" Seto glanced idly out the window as a winter snow began to fall.  
  
"I have foreseen that you are already deeply involved," Ishizu replied. "These evil forces are conspiring to take your life."  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow. "They didn't do a very good job of it," he remarked sarcastically.  
  
"What happened three days before was only a warning," Ishizu said softly.  
  
"Then you're saying it was them that attacked me," Seto stated.  
  
"Most likely." Ishizu paused.  
  
"Can't you tell me any more?" Seto demanded. "Who are these clowns? Why do they want me dead? And are they going to go after my brother?" he asked urgently.  
  
"I have not seen the answers to your questions," Ishizu told him. "I only see what is needed for me to see at the time."  
  
"Look, it's 'needed' for me to know if Mokuba isn't safe," Seto growled. "He means more to me than anything!"  
  
"I understand that," Ishizu said, and Seto could tell she was nodding again. "But I cannot tell you more at this time." She hesitated. "Stay true to your values, Seto. Farewell." With that she hung up, leaving Seto very baffled, confused, and a bit frustrated.  
  
What Ishizu says hardly ever makes sense at the time she says it, Seto decided. He couldn't imagine why any great evil from the ancient past would want him dead.  
  
Unfortunately, however, he couldn't entirely dismiss what Ishizu said, either. He knew someone was after him, and maybe she did know something about who they were. He rather doubted the supernatural angle, even though he himself had considered that only shortly before.  
  
He mulled all this over in his mind before picking up the phone again and dialing his home number. "Velma," he said when he heard his bubbly maid's voice, "is Mokuba there?"  
  
"Yes, sir!" Velma chirped. "He misses you, Mr. Kaiba! Shall I put him on?"  
  
"Go right ahead." Seto waited.  
  
Soon Mokuba's innocent voice came on the line. "Hi, big brother!" he said happily. "How are you?"  
  
"I'm fine, kid," Seto replied, smiling. He loved that boy so much! "What have you been up to?"  
  
"Oh, not much. Just finishing my homework," Mokuba told him.  
  
"That's good," Seto nodded. "Look, kid, I'm sending the limo over. How would you like to come here with me for a bit?"  
  
"You mean it, Seto?" Mokuba exclaimed. "Alright!" he yelled excitedly.  
  
After saying their goodbyes, Seto hung up and waited for Mokuba to arrive. He'd feel much better knowing that Mokuba was with him instead of home alone with the maids, especially if there was some danger afoot.  
****  
The nameless boy slowly climbed out of the bed and limped over to the window for a better look at the world outside. He could see the strange white stuff falling from the sky and he shivered. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that he wasn't used to snow. If Anita was right, that he was an Egyptian, what was he doing here? It seemed like a nice enough place, but was it really where he would want to live?  
  
"Looks pretty cold, doesn't it?"  
  
The boy turned and saw Anita standing in the doorway. "It does," he agreed, nodding slowly.  
  
Anita came in and stood in front of him. "It looks like you're feeling a lot better now," she remarked with a smile.  
  
Again the boy nodded. He wondered what he would do when he was released. Where would he go? What would he do? How would he get a job without any identification?  
  
Anita seemed to sense his fears. "I'm sure everything will be alright," she said softly. "In time you'll remember who you are."  
  
"I wish I had your confidence," the boy replied sadly.  
  
Anita paused. "I went on a name website during my lunch break," she said finally.  
  
"Oh?" The boy showed only mild interest.  
  
"I looked through lots of different name lists, and . . ." Anita tried to choose her words carefully. "It was kind of strange what happened."  
  
"What did?" The boy again glanced curiously out the window, while at the same time keeping most of his attention on the nurse.  
  
"I was drawn to this one name," Anita told him slowly. "I felt that it was right for you."  
  
Now she had his full attention. "What was it?" he demanded.  
  
"Marik," she said softly. "The name was Marik." 


	3. Disturbing Dreams

Notes: This is not yaoi ^_~ And no, the jewelry is not a Millennium Item ^_~ Marik wears quite a bit of Egyptian jewelry. It's part of his culture ^^  
  
  
"Marik," the boy repeated, trying out the name.  
  
"Does it ring any bells?" Anita asked.  
  
The boy thought hard. "No," he said, looking sad, "but it's as good a name as any."  
  
"Then Marik it is," Anita smiled, patting him on the shoulder.  
****  
Outside a group of men threw off their dark robes and sneered.  
  
"I can't believe we're really free of his mind control," one of them remarked.  
  
"Well, we are," said a second, "and now we're going to have our revenge."  
  
"Are you sure we should do this?" a third one said doubtfully. "I mean, it just doesn't seem right, since he's been sick and all."  
  
"So what?" the second one said flippantly. "If anything bad happens to him, I figure he sure as heck deserves it! After all the agony he put us through, he should die in cold blood!"  
  
The others in the group echoed the sentiment. "Tonight is the night," the first one declared, "that Marik Ishtar will perish!"  
****  
Bakura returned to his house that night, feeling uneasy and worried. What Joey had said earlier had made him afraid that he was being followed. But who would be coming after him? It didn't make sense.  
  
[What is the matter with you?!] Yami Bakura demanded from inside the Ring as Bakura glanced all around furtively.  
  
{I'm sorry, Yami,} Bakura replied with a sigh. {I keep feeling as though someone has been following us!}  
  
[That's absurd,] Yami Bakura snapped. [There's no one around, you dolt.]  
  
Bakura knew that that was likely true, but it didn't stop him from calling out bravely, "Who's there?" Not receiving an answer, he unlocked the front door and went inside.  
  
The Ring glowed and then Bakura's naughty Yami appeared in the living room, looking put out. "You pathetic mortal," he growled. "You are becoming paranoid!"  
  
"No, I'm not!" Bakura cried defensively. He glanced around the empty room, feeling a certain sadness. He wished his father wasn't always traveling. When Bakura was younger, he used to do lots of fun things with his dad, but now his father was always too busy for him. Bakura was usually alone in the house these days with only his Yami, who generally wasn't very good company.  
  
Now Yami Bakura wandered out into the kitchen to get some chocolate milk. Bakura sighed and followed him, closing the blinds as he went.  
  
Suddenly the ancient thief let out a howl of pain and Bakura heard a dull crash. "Yami?" the boy cried, panic-stricken. "Yami?!"  
  
"Don't . . . come in," the tomb raider gasped, and Bakura could hear the sounds of a struggle.  
  
"Yami, what's happening?!" Bakura demanded, running to the doorway.  
  
A knife flew overhead and stuck in the wall about an inch away from the silver-haired boy.  
  
"Oh my!" he exclaimed, his brown eyes wide.  
  
"You dolt!!!" Yami Bakura yelled. "I told you not to come in!!!" The thief was scrapping on the floor with a tough-looking opponent, and blood was splattering everywhere. Bakura couldn't tell whose it was, but the sight made him feel faint and dizzy. He turned away before he could pass out.  
  
Suddenly all was silent. Bakura stood still, listening, his heart pounding. If he tried to go in the kitchen he might get knifed, but he was worried about the tomb robber. "Yami?" he called quaveringly. Not getting an answer, he found himself becoming more frantic. "Yami!!" he called louder. "Are you alright?" Still there was silence. Bakura knew he had to go see what had happened.  
  
When he entered the kitchen, the innocent boy stopped short in horror. The backdoor was blowing in the breeze and his Yami was laying on the floor in a pool of blood, clutching a knife. No one else was in sight, but Bakura could see a trail of blood leading outside. Yami Bakura must have stabbed his attacker, Bakura decided, but it looked like the tomb robber was in much worse shape from what the assailant had done to him.  
  
Quickly Bakura dropped to his knees next to the ancient thief, his hands shaking as he pulled the knife away. "Yami! Oh Yami, what happened?!" Now he saw that his Yami had been stabbed in the back and he gasped in horror. He realized that the pool of blood was his Yami's . . . not the attacker's, as he originally had thought.  
  
He grabbed for the nearest thing he could find—which turned out to be a dishtowel—and pressed it against the thief's wound to stop the bleeding.  
  
Yami Bakura stirred slightly, moaning in pain.  
  
"It's alright, Yami," Bakura whispered shakily, feeling dizzy again. "You'll be alright." Naturally he still wondered what on earth had happened, but he knew this was no time to try finding out.  
  
The tomb raider struggled to speak. "Lock . . . lock the door . . . you fool," he gasped.  
  
Bakura blinked. He hadn't even remembered that the door was open. "But Yami . . ." he protested.  
  
"Lock it," Yami Bakura hissed. "Or . . . or . . . they'll . . . they'll be . . . back." He groaned as he went under again.  
  
Slowly Bakura removed the dishtowel and found that the bleeding had slowed. Hopefully it would soon stop completely, he thought to himself as he reached over with one hand to lock the door and slip the deadbolt into place.  
  
He decided he'd better call Yugi. He hated to trouble him so late, but he didn't know what else to do. His Yami was hurt and needed help, and since Yugi had a Yami as well, maybe he would know what to do.  
****  
Seto had been working far into the night hours, and he was starting to get tired. When he glanced back to check on Mokuba, he discovered that the younger boy had already fallen asleep curled up on the couch.  
  
With a tender smile, Seto got up and walked over to his brother. Gently he tousled the younger boy's hair and then took his trenchcoat off, covering Mokuba's little body with it.  
  
When he turned to go back to his work, his blood ran cold. He sensed a dark presence in the room. "Who's here?" he demanded.  
  
A chilling laugh was the answer. "You don't know my name, but I know yours—Seto Kaiba!"  
  
Seto growled angrily and positioned himself protectively in front of Mokuba. "What is you want?"  
  
"I am looking for what once was mine," the voice hissed.  
  
"I don't have it," Seto said firmly.  
  
"I know you don't," the voice replied. "But you do know the person who now possesses it."  
  
"You're not making sense!" Seto fumed.  
  
"You know what I'm referring to!" the voice said accusingly.  
  
"No, I don't." Seto's eyes narrowed in vexation.  
  
"If you didn't, you wouldn't be so quick to say you didn't have it."  
  
With that the voice ceased to speak and the dark feeling left. Seto knew that whatever it was had departed, and he had to admit he was quite relieved. But who had it been? And what had they been after? The voice sounded vaguely familiar, and yet Seto couldn't place where he'd heard it before. It sounded so dark, so evil. . . . A chill ran up Seto's spine and he sat down on the couch to try to figure things out.  
  
Mokuba stirred vaguely and Seto moved over closer to him, letting the younger boy use his leg as a pillow. Before he knew it, Seto had slipped into an unwilling sleep himself.  
  
His dreams were confused and nebulous. He was floating in the air . . . was he dead? Or . . . wait! Who was that standing on the ground below, laughing like a maniac? It looked like himself, but . . . he was above him! Or was he?  
  
The boy on the ground looked up suddenly and regarded Seto with a look of immense loathing and revulsion. "You could never be me," he hissed, and suddenly Seto was falling. Down, down . . . until he crashed on the ground below and lay dying.  
  
Then Mokuba was at his side, crying. "Big brother!! Big brother!!" he wailed, shaking the older boy frantically. "Wake up, Seto!! Wake up!!"  
  
Suddenly Seto was startled back to reality. Mokuba really *was* shaking him, and they were both on the floor, all tangled up in Seto's trenchcoat. "Mokuba! Hey, kid, I'm awake!" Seto cried, not especially enjoying being shaken.  
  
Mokuba let go of his brother and stared worriedly into his blue eyes. "Seto, are you okay?" he asked. "You were crying out in your sleep and then you fell on the floor!" He didn't mention that he had been thrown to the floor as well.  
  
Seto blinked and sat up. "I'm . . . I'm fine, Mokuba," he said at last. He shook his head. "I was just having a bad dream." But now as he tried to remember what it had been about, his mind was a blank.  
****  
Marik was having trouble sleeping. He couldn't shake the feeling that something ominous was about to happen.  
  
He glanced at the wall clock. 2am. What would possibly happen at two o'clock in the morning? Perhaps it was all in his head. No one was around except the night nurse.  
  
Suddenly he heard the door to his room being opened. Quickly he lay back down and pretended to be asleep, his heart racing wildly.  
  
"He's in here," one cold voice announced.  
  
"Is he asleep?" another one asked in hushed tones.  
  
"Yeah, but he can stay asleep until we get him out of here," the first replied. "That's when we really want to torture him!"  
  
"We should just kill him now," a third voice hissed.  
  
Marik was horrified. These men were after him! Why? What had he done to stir them up in such rage and hatred?  
  
Instantly he sprang up, standing on the bed and facing his would-be murderers. "What do you want?" he demanded. "Why are you attempting to end my life?"  
  
"Oh, it's so good to see you again," one of the strange men sneered. "Master!" He spat the word out as if it tasted bad, and Marik was again appalled.  
  
"'Master'?" he repeated. "I . . . I don't know what you mean . . ."  
  
"Don't play dumb with us," another one growled. "You don't have the Millennium Rod any more, and without it, you can't control us. And that leaves us free to destroy you!"  
  
Marik jumped out of the way just as the man moved in for the attack, brandishing a knife. The weapon ripped through the mattress, leaving a gaping hole.   
  
Marik had to get out of here—now. Thinking fast, he shoved one of the lockers at them, grabbed his shoes, and ran out.  
  
The night nurse gasped. "You there! You're not supposed to be running through the hospital at this time of night!!"  
  
"I'm sorry!" Marik yelled back. "But if I don't, some very strange, angry men will kill me!!" He tore down the hall and spotted a cart full of freshly washed towels. Perhaps he could hide in there! It was worth a try. Those men would round the corner any minute.  
  
Removing a huge stack of towels, Marik leaped into the cart and then replaced the towels over his head. He lay in the darkness, his breath coming in short, brief gasps. Would he be safe in there?  
  
He wondered what kind of person he was. He must be despicable if he could drive men to actually try killing him.  
  
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the men in the hall.  
  
"He can't have gone far," one of them said.  
  
"You check down there, and I'll check over here," another one directed.  
  
Marik could hear the person coming closer to his hideout. Would he be discovered? 


	4. Mysteries of the Past and Present

Notes: Again, this isn't yaoi ^^ Oh, and Kythopia is Des's character, so no usin' her without permission!! ^_~  
  
  
Yugi woke up in the middle of the night with a start. "Yami!" he cried, seeing the ancient pharaoh staring out the window.  
  
"Yes?" Yami Yugi turned back to face the boy.  
  
"I . . . I had a dream," Yugi said slowly, getting out of bed. "I'm afraid my friends are in trouble!"  
  
Yami Yugi slowly nodded. "I have sensed this too," he said grimly.  
  
The phone jangled abruptly, startling both of them. "Who would call at this hour?!" Yugi cried, grabbing the receiver. "Hello, Muto residence," he greeted shakily.  
  
"Yugi?" He recognized the soft, worried voice.  
  
"Bakura?!" Yugi gasped. "What's wrong?"  
  
Shakily Bakura explained what had happened with the attacker. "I . . . I don't know what to do," he wailed. "I probably should call the police, but I can't very well tell them what happened to my Yami. The modern medical doctors wouldn't be able to help him. . . ." He trailed off.  
  
Yugi nodded slowly. That was true. "How is he now, Bakura?" he asked.  
  
Bakura paused. "Well, he's . . . he's just laying on the floor because I don't know how to move him," he admitted. "He . . . he looks as though he's asleep, but I think he's actually unconscious. I . . . I managed to get the bleeding stopped and to bandage his wound, but I . . . I don't quite know what to do now."  
  
Yugi exchanged a look with his Yami. "It's alright, Bakura," he assured him. "Yami and I will come out to help."  
  
"Oh thank you," Bakura said softly as he hung up.  
****  
Marik huddled in the cart of towels, listening to the would-be assassins outside in the hospital corridors. The night nurse had noticed them now and had demanded to know what they were doing. They had given a vague answer and she was calling security, but even that didn't make them stop looking for the Egyptian boy.  
  
I can't stay here, Marik told himself. Once they have left, I will have to depart as well! He had no idea where he would go, but he couldn't stay in this hospital—not with these men after him.  
  
His thoughts were interrupted as one of the maids suddenly took the cart and began pushing it. She was probably heading for the linen closet to replace the towels. What would she do if she found Marik all curled up at the bottom?  
  
He soon found out. The woman lifted the towels to put them away and let out an ear-piercing shriek. "Who are you?! What are you doing in there?!" she cried.  
  
Now that Marik's cover was blown, he had no choice but to jump out of the cart and run off down the hall. Her screams had alerted the strange men, and they were coming after him again. Why on earth did they want him dead so badly that they would chase him through a hospital?!  
****  
Tea was having a disturbing dream of her own. In it, she had apparently gone to ancient Egypt and was wandering down the halls of a great palace. "Hello?" she called. "Is anyone here?"  
  
Suddenly the pointed end of a long glaive was stuck at her and a grim-looking woman with dark blue hair stepped out. "Who are you, and what is your business with being in the Pharaoh's palace?" she demanded.  
  
Tea was bowled over. "Pharaoh's palace?" she repeated.  
  
The woman nodded solemnly.  
  
Suddenly a young man who looked strikingly familiar came from around a corner. He was adorned in the attire of ancient Egypt, with strange and elaborate headgear. He wore a long cloak and white pants, and around his neck he wore the Millennium Ankh. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and in his hand he held the Millennium Rod, which he pointed at Tea.  
  
Tea backed up, startled. "Kaiba?!" she gasped.  
  
The boy came closer to her and smirked, running his fingers along her cheek. Tea grimaced, not enjoying his touch in the least. "I will take it from here, Kythopia," he said, but the blue-haired woman glared at him suspiciously.  
  
"Someday the Pharaoh will stop your evil plans," she said, pointing the weapon at him now. "And I will assist him whole-heartedly!"  
  
The boy didn't look fazed. "Please. I am more powerful than the Pharaoh and all of his absurd sorcerers—including you, Kythopia!"  
  
Tea looked at him. "Who are you?" she demanded.  
  
He sneered at her, and Tea could see the dark, evil look in his eyes. "I am the Pharaoh's high priest," he told her, but didn't give a name.  
  
Tea knew that all she wanted was to get away from him immediately. Kythopia knew this, too, and she glared at the boy. "She doesn't like you," the blue-haired woman said, raising her glaive to point directly at his throat. "And neither do I. Leave. Now!"  
  
The boy only laughed and continued on down the hall. Tea looked after him in disgust. "What a creep," she remarked. That couldn't have been Seto Kaiba, she decided.  
  
Kythopia nodded in agreement. "Come," she said. "I will escort you out of the palace."  
  
"No, wait!" a new voice chirped.  
  
Tea whirled around. It sounded like . . . herself. Running toward them was a girl in a pink Egyptian dress. Her eyes were brown, but other than that, she bore a striking resemblance to Tea herself. "I have wished to speak with her," the girl told Kythopia. "Please, come with me," she implored, and Tea followed curiously.  
  
"Who are you?" she asked.  
  
The girl smiled. "I am Teana," she explained. "My message to you can only be very brief," she said, glancing around furtively.  
  
"What is it?" Tea wanted to know. "What's going on around here?"  
  
Teana came closer to Tea and whispered, "You must be cautious!"  
  
"Why?" Tea exclaimed. "What's going on? Are my friends in danger?"  
  
"The secrets to the present lie in the mysteries of the past," Teana told her.  
****  
Tea awoke, her heart pounding wildly. What did it mean? The dream had been too vivid and detailed to not be important.  
  
Wait . . . Pharaoh's palace? What if she had gone back to the time when Yami Yugi was the ruler of Egypt?  
  
And who was that creepy boy? There was no way Tea could believe it was Seto Kaiba. He didn't act like that. Of course . . . she remembered that Ishizu always said that Seto had lived a past life in Egypt.  
  
She shook her head, the memory of the boy's evil touch fresh in her mind. That wasn't Kaiba! What Ishizu thought was wrong. It had to be!  
  
Her thoughts drifted to Teana's warning. Something was wrong—very wrong. And they had better figure out what—very fast.  
****  
Seto looked out the window at Domino City bleary-eyed. He hadn't been able to sleep since that strange dream. What did it mean?  
  
He looked over at Mokuba, who had fallen asleep again. What would he do if that creep—whoever he was—came after Mokuba? No, he couldn't let that happen. He wouldn't!  
  
His eyes narrowed. "Don't expect to win against me," he vowed low. "Whoever—or whatever—you are, you've just met your match."  
  
In the shadows, a dark figure had heard Seto's comment. "We'll see," he said low. "We will just see."  
****  
Marik tore down the hall, frightened. What was he going to do? Now not only were those men chasing him, but so was hospital security! They didn't realize he was a patient and instead thought he was some kind of burglar. "Please! I'm not armed!" he cried, knocking over a tray of medicine.  
  
"Hello, master," one of the strange men sneered, dropping down out of nowhere. Marik's eyes widened and he turned to run the other way, crashing into a doctor just coming out of the operating room.  
  
"I'm sorry!" Marik apologized, dashing down the corridor. The doctor stared after him and then was pushed aside by the strange man.  
  
"You there!" a security guard yelled. "Come back here!"  
  
Marik didn't answer, and instead ran up another hallway. He had to get away.  
  
But now he had just reached a dead end.  
  
"Nowhere to run now, *master*," one of the men sneered, appearing from around the corner and advancing on him.  
  
Marik looked around wildly. There *was* one way out, but it was risky. . . . Not as risky as being caught by these crazed men, however. "Not quite!" he yelled, and jumped out the window. He winced as the glass cut through his flesh, but he couldn't worry about that now.  
  
"He jumped!" the man yelled in disbelief.  
  
"But we're six stories up!" another one said. "He has to be dead!"  
  
Marik was hanging from a ledge just under the window. If those men saw him he was dead, but if he lost his grip he'd be dead too. What was he going to do now?  
****  
"Bakura, did you see what that guy looked like?" Yugi asked. He was helping his friend clean the blood off the floor. Yami Yugi had carried Yami Bakura up to bed and said that the tomb robber should be alright in a while, much to Bakura's relief, so now the boy had decided that he needed to get the kitchen more presentable before his dad came home and saw it.  
  
Bakura paused as he heard Yugi's question. "Well, I . . . I couldn't see him very well, but he . . . he had cold gray eyes and . . . he had a shock of red hair. That's about all I could make out," he sighed. "What on earth could he have wanted?!"  
  
"It sounds to me like he just came to cause some trouble," Yugi said grimly. He was reluctant to say it aloud, but he was afraid that Joey was right about them being stalked.  
  
"I was afraid someone was following me home," Bakura said softly. He paused. "But what I don't understand is, why didn't my Yami sense it too? He thought I was just being ridiculous."  
  
Yugi paused. "There's more going on here than meets the eye," he said softly.  
****  
Joey woke up the next morning feeling edgy. He had tossed and turned all night, having strange dreams himself, but now he couldn't remember anything about them.  
  
He went to look at himself in the mirror. "Oh man . . . I look like a train wreck," he sighed, shaking his head. He turned on the water and splashed some in his face.  
  
After breakfast he was starting to feel better. He decided to head off to Yugi's place and see what was up.  
  
On the way he met Tristan. "Hey, bud, what's up?" the other boy asked.  
  
"Man, I don't know!!" Joey cried. "I just know somethin' freaky is goin' on!"  
  
"Not that again," Tristan sighed.  
  
Joey paused. "You know, Tristan, there's a car followin' us."  
  
Tristan looked back. "Probably just your imagination," he shrugged.  
  
Joey gasped. "Is that my imagination too?!" He pointed at the strange car, where someone was holding up a camera and snapping a picture.  
  
Tristan's eyes widened. "What the . . ." He pointed his forefinger at the car. "Hey you! Why are you taking our picture?!"  
  
Immediately the camera disappeared back inside and the window rolled up. With a screech of its tires, the car had turned around and disappeared.  
  
"Whaddya think about that, huh?!" Joey exclaimed.  
  
Tristan shook his head. "I think something is very weird."  
****  
Bakura awoke with a start. He had dozed off sitting in the chair next to his Yami's bed. Had long had he been asleep? He blinked, looking around. It seemed to be morning. But what had awakened him?  
  
He looked over at Yami Bakura. The thief was laying on his side in the same position Bakura had last seen him in, but now his slanted brown eyes were open. "Yami!" the boy cried. "Are you alright?"  
  
"I've been trying to wake you for ten minutes," the thief told him grouchily, raising himself up on one elbow.  
  
Bakura blinked. "I . . . I'm sorry," he said softly.  
  
Yami Bakura shook his head in annoyance. "Fool. Listen to me," he ordered, ignoring the boy's earlier question. "The man that attacked me last night had some kind of dark powers," he stated.  
  
Bakura gasped. "Was he . . . mortal?" he finished finally.  
  
"Yes, you fool, but he was drawing on ancient evil powers," Yami Bakura replied. "I was barely able to defeat him." His eyes narrowed angrily as he said this.  
  
"Oh my," Bakura cried.  
  
"And . . ." Yami Bakura paused, gathering his strength. "I don't doubt that he will be back," he finished grimly, "as I was unable to permanently defeat him."  
  
"But what would he want with me?" Bakura asked. He was feeling very frightened.  
  
"It's not just you, fool!" Yami Bakura snapped. "It's you and all of your pathetic friends. Someone has found out about your uncanny abilities to defeat dark forces and wants to get you all out of the way!" He paused again, now feeling quite weak, and lowered himself back down onto the soft pillows. "Don't leave the house," he ordered before falling unconscious again.  
  
Bakura sat still, blinking. What his Yami had said gave him the chills. He needed to warn the others immediately!  
  
The phone rang then, startling him out of his thoughts. "Hello," he said softly as he picked up the receiver.  
  
No answer.  
  
"Hello?" Bakura said again. "Who is this?!"  
  
Then he heard a dull click as someone hung up. 


	5. New Surprises and Dangers

Marik still clung frantically to the window ledge. It must have been about five minutes by now since he had had to jump through the pane of glass to escape the assassins, and he was just waiting to make sure the coast was clear. Once the men got outside and saw that there wasn't a body on the ground, they'd know he was still alive—and if he was still hanging from the ledge, they'd be sure to look up and see him—so Marik knew he had better try to climb back inside immediately.  
  
Exactly how he would do that was another matter entirely. He really needed someone to pull him up, but there was no one around to do so. Marik was entirely on his own.  
  
Reaching up with all his strength, he managed to grab hold of the window sill and then tried to hoist himself up. For one minute it seemed like he would slip and fall, but he gritted his teeth in determination and kept struggling, ignoring his open wounds from the glass and the pain shooting through his body. He had been in a coma only a short time before, and though his health was improving, he really wasn't well enough yet for such excursions.  
  
With a gasp, he pulled himself up through the window and collapsed onto the floor below, breathing heavily. No one was in sight, and Marik was quite content with that. Now he just had to sneak into a medicine closet, treat his new wounds, and then make tracks. He didn't know where he would go, but obviously he couldn't keep staying here.  
  
****  
  
"Man, Yug!" Joey cried as he and Tristan walked through the door of the game shop and found their friend tending the counter. "You won't believe what happened to us!"  
  
"Were you followed again, Joey?" Yugi asked worriedly.  
  
"We sure were!" Joey said hotly. "And they took our picture! Ain't that right, Tristan?"  
  
The hazel-eyed boy nodded. "When they knew we'd seen them, they turned around and drove off!"  
  
Yugi shook his head. "This is bad," he said grimly. "And you guys aren't the only ones who had a scary experience." Then he related what had happened to Bakura and his Yami the previous night.  
  
"Someone just broke into the house and stabbed Bakura's Yami in cold blood?!" Tristan said, wide-eyed.  
  
Yugi nodded. "If they had stabbed Bakura instead, he'd probably be . . ." He let that thought trail off.  
  
"See?" Joey cried. "I knew someone was stalkin' us! I just knew it!"  
  
"Someone is stalking you?" a new, but familiar, voice said smoothly. The teens turned around to see Weevil Underwood standing in the doorway smirking. "Now I wonder who would want to do such a thing."  
  
Joey's short temper boiled over. "Man, Weevil! Whaddya want?!" He went over and grabbed the mint-haired boy, raising him into the air. "I bet you're the one stalkin' us!"  
  
"Unhand me!" Weevil cried. "I've done nothing! I just couldn't help but hear you all conversing as I walked past," he said, struggling to push Joey away.  
  
"Man, I wouldn't be surprised if I found out you *are* responsible for what's been goin' on," Joey growled, letting the other boy go.  
  
"And why would I want to stalk you?" Weevil grumped. "I have much more important things to do with my time."  
  
"Oh yeah? Like what?" Tristan demanded.  
  
Weevil shrugged. "That is none of your beeswax!" He adjusted his glasses and began wandering through the store.  
  
Yugi watched him uneasily. "Uh . . . can I help you find anything?"  
  
Weevil chuckled. "No. I am just looking." He examined several packs of Duel Monsters cards and then wandered over to look at the rare cards kept under lock and key in the glass counter.  
  
"So, I heard that you're moving here to our neighborhood," Yugi said, trying to sound friendly.  
  
"You heard right," Weevil replied, not offering any more information. After seeming to consider for a time, he chose several booster packs and shoved them at Yugi. "I'll just take these," he said.  
  
"Alright," Yugi agreed with a nod. He rang up the cards and then gave Weevil his change.  
  
"Tryin' to improve your deck, huh?" Joey said, trying to look.  
  
Weevil sneered. "I just might be." He turned to leave.  
  
"Man, I don't like the way you're smirkin', Weevil! If you're behind the stalkin', you're gonna wish you'd never been born!" Joey growled.  
  
Weevil's eyes narrowed. "Do I detect a threat?"  
  
"Sure, if you're guilty of the crime," Joey said.  
  
"Take it easy, Joey." Yugi put his hand on Joey's shoulder. "Try to calm down."  
  
"I'll have you sued for false accusations!" Weevil yelled at Joey, pushing past him and Tristan and going out the door.  
  
Yugi sighed. "Joey, you know we don't have a shred of evidence to prove that Weevil did anything," he said, "and anyway, he may be a creep, but he wouldn't try to kill someone, nor would he hire someone else to do it."  
  
Joey's eyes narrowed. "I don't know that I'd put anything past that pint-sized troublemaker," he growled.  
  
"Well, he's up to something, there's no question about that," Tristan admitted. "But I agree with Yugi—I don't think he's responsible for the weird goings-on."  
  
Joey grunted. "Well, I'll be keepin' my eyes on him anyway," he vowed.  
  
****  
  
Seto walked up the steps leading to the Domino Museum. "I can't believe I'm doing this," he muttered, and he wouldn't be if it wasn't that he was worried about Mokuba's safety. He would do anything for that boy.  
  
When he walked inside, the museum seemed deserted. "Hello?" he called. "Is anyone here?" His voice echoed throughout the empty corridors.  
  
He wandered over near the ominous basement and suddenly Ishizu's silky voice came from the darkness. "Welcome, Seto Kaiba. I've been waiting for you."  
  
Seto whirled around to face the lovely Egyptian woman. "Tell me what's going on here," he demanded, not bothering to say hello. Or admit that he'd just been startled.  
  
Instead of answering directly, Ishizu turned to go back in the basement. "Follow me, Kaiba," she said, and Seto did. This path was only too familiar to him.  
  
When they reached the bottom, Ishizu clicked the lights on and gestured to the ancient stone tablets on the walls. "Kaiba, do you remember the first time I showed these to you?"  
  
Seto's eyes narrowed. "Of course I do. How could I forget?"  
  
Ishizu walked to the infamous one portraying two people engaged in battle with Duel Monsters. "I told you that you were this one." She pointed to the carving of the evil high priest.  
  
"And I said you were crazy." Seto crossed his arms. "I don't believe that nonsense."  
  
Ishizu smiled in her mysterious way. "Not even the trips into the past could convince you."  
  
"Of course not. That guy was a loud-mouth jerk. You can't compare him to me!" Seto retorted, starting to get annoyed. "Look, I didn't come here to reminisce."  
  
"I know what you came for," Ishizu said calmly. "You came for answers." She paused, looking deeply into his piercing blue eyes. "I know what happened to you last night, Kaiba, and I know your dream."  
  
"Then tell me, Ishizu—what does it mean?" Seto demanded. "You say someone wants me dead. What if they want to hurt my brother as well?"  
  
"That I cannot see at this time," Ishizu replied. "I do not know all things, Kaiba. Only God does." She paused. "But Kaiba, what I *have* seen is that you may have been right all along. At least partially."  
  
Seto blinked. "Huh? What do you mean? Right about what?"  
  
Ishizu turned slightly to again study the carving. "You may not have once lived as the Pharaoh's evil high priest," she said softly.  
  
Seto snorted. "I could've told you that. All your talk about the past is ridiculous."  
  
Ishizu shook her head. "Kaiba. Just because I may have been incorrect about that does not mean that everything I have said is wrong. Many of my predictions have came true." She paused. "And I was not completely incorrect in what I said about the high priest, though I believe I did misinterpret part of what I saw."  
  
Seto wasn't pleased. "Now what?"  
  
"Kaiba, this high priest—whoever he was—does have some connection with you. It is impossible to mistake the striking resemblance between you both," Ishizu said firmly.  
  
"A mere coincidence." Seto was becoming bored with this.  
  
Ishizu continued right on as if she hadn't heard. "I believe that he may have been your ancient ancestor," she announced.  
  
Seto wasn't impressed. "Well, I suppose it's an improvement over thinking I was him," he remarked. "But I want to know who's after me! My brother's life might be in danger, and I'd like at least some idea of who I'm going up against." His eyes narrowed. "I really have no interest in *who* that evil priest was."  
  
Ishizu nodded. "Ah, but Kaiba . . . *he* is whom you will be up against." She indicated the carving again.  
  
"What?!" Seto gave Ishizu an "Are you nuts" look.  
  
"Kaiba, I know about the dark presence you felt last night," Ishizu replied. "When the priest was killed for his wicked actions, his spirit was banished to the Shadow Realm, where it has remained imprisoned for thousands of years."  
  
"And now you're saying that someone released it." It was a statement, not a question.  
  
"I am afraid so," Ishizu nodded.  
  
Seto didn't answer immediately. This was all so strange to think about.  
  
"Kaiba, because of your ties to this spirit, destiny has chosen you to defeat him," Ishizu announced, again looking him directly in the eyes.  
  
****  
  
Marik watched the towns go by as he rode at the back of the Greyhound bus. He didn't have any money with him, but he had managed to sneak past the driver when a whole group of cheerleaders had gotten on board. He had left the hospital as fast as he could, managing to elude his would-be murderers, but now he was really no better off. He didn't know his name, his occupation, or anything about himself. All he knew was that he had done something so terrible that men wanted to kill him because of it.  
  
He thought back to what the men had said. "You don't have the Millennium Rod any more, and without it, you can't control us!"  
  
What on earth was the Millennium Rod? Why would he want to control people? Marik shook his head. Maybe he didn't really want to know who he was. Perhaps he should just start fresh . . . if he could.  
  
The bus stopped and the cheerleaders all stood up to get off. Marik decided that he might as well follow them. It wasn't like he knew of anywhere he could really call home anymore, so one place was just as good as another.  
  
This time his presence didn't go noticed.  
  
"Hey you!" the bus driver snapped. "I don't remember seeing you get on!"  
  
"Surely you are not aware of every person who enters your bus," Marik replied coldly, walking down the steps before the driver could protest further.   
  
He watched the cheerleaders all begin to split up and go their separate ways, then glanced up at a sign above him. Welcome to Domino City, it read. Well, that meant nothing to him. With a sigh, he started walking down the lonely streets.  
  
****  
  
When Tea got to school the next morning, she spotted Yugi, Joey, and Tristan right away and hurried over. "Hey you guys!" she chirped. "Is everything okay?"  
  
"No, it ain't," Joey replied, and again related what had happened to him and Tristan. "And," he added, "I wouldn't be surprised if that sneaky Weevil is mixed up in this!"  
  
Tea blinked. "Why would Weevil do this? It doesn't make sense, Joey." She looked around. "Where's Bakura?" she cried.  
  
"I don't think he'll be coming to school today," Yugi said slowly.  
  
"Why not?" Tea gasped. "Is he hurt?"  
  
Yugi shook his head. "No, but his Yami is." He explained what had happened in the early morning hours. Tea was horrified.  
  
"How could someone just break into his house like that?!" she wanted to know. "That's just terrible!"  
  
The others nodded in solemn agreement, then looked as Seto's limo pulled up. The aloof boy stepped out, looking preoccupied, grim, and tired.  
  
"Man, you didn't get much sleep last night, did you?" Joey blurted.  
  
Seto grunted. "You don't look so well yourself, Wheeler," he retorted.  
  
"Are you okay, Kaiba?" Yugi asked.  
  
"I'm fine, Yugi." Seto wasn't in the mood to talk. He was still thinking about everything Ishizu had told him. He didn't know whether to believe it or not, but he did know that something very evil and probably not mortal had spoken to him last night. Something was definitely amiss—he just didn't know whether the high priest was involved or not.  
  
The bell rang then and the teens headed to homeroom.  
  
As Yugi opened his desk, he was startled to find another white envelope with his name on it.  
  
"Oh man," Joey said from the next desk, "another one?!"  
  
Quickly Yugi tore it open. As before, a single sheet of paper fell out.  
  
I'm watching you!  
  
"Well, that's just great!" Joey said in frustration. "Another unsigned message! And this one seems to say that whoever's doin' this is also responsible for all the other stuff that's happenin' to us!"  
  
The teacher called the class to order then and everyone had to turn to her and pay attention, but inwardly Yugi was worried. Very worried.  
  
****  
  
Marik wandered down the streets, wondering what he was going to do. Suddenly a figure sitting on a rotting porch looked up and called to him. "Hey kid!"  
  
Marik turned. "You are speaking to me?"  
  
"Yes, you! Don't I know you from somewhere?" The man's eyes glinted.  
  
"I can't imagine where," Marik replied, feeling uneasy.  
  
The man came down and stood next to him, and Marik backed up in fear. "I do know you," he sneered, "and I've waited ages to do this!" Without warning he grabbed Marik fiercely around his neck, and the boy felt the gold collar he was wearing cut into his throat.  
  
"What . . . what are you doing?" he gasped, trying in vain to pry the man's rough hands away.  
  
"What I should've done years ago," the man hissed, squeezing hard. There was no mistaking what he was trying to do—he wanted to strangle Marik! 


	6. Rescue

Marik's eyes went wide. "Please," he choked, "please stop!" He again tried to pull the man's hands away, but to no avail.  
  
"Why should I?" the man retorted. "After all you did to me and the others, you deserve to die!" His eyes narrowed at the memories. "You put us under your mind control. You imprisoned us in the Shadow Realm. Give me one good reason why I should let you live!"  
  
Marik was horrified at the man's words. He had really done all that?! "I . . . I do not remember what I did, but I am most heartily sor . . ."  
  
The man's grip tightened. "Save it. Your tricks won't work on me!"  
  
Marik had to think fast. Quickly he lashed out and kicked the man in the shin. He cried in pain, but instead of loosening his hold on Marik's throat, the man tightened it painfully. The boy's vision began to swim.  
  
"Please . . . let me go," Marik rasped.  
  
"Oh, I'll let you go," the man replied, "when you can't bother anyone anymore!"  
  
Marik still struggled, but he was beginning to wonder if he should just accept his fate. If he was such a horrid person, maybe everyone would be better off if he was dead. A tear fell from his eye as he embraced the darkness. No one would miss him.  
  
"Hey!" a new voice screamed. "What do you think you're doing?!"  
  
Startled, the man let Marik go and he dropped to the ground in a heap. "Who are you, punk?!" he demanded, whirling around.  
  
"The one who will deal out your future." Now the voice sounded different . . . more commanding. "Mind crush!!"  
  
With a cry of pain, the man collapsed to the ground.  
  
****  
  
"Man, Yug, that was somethin' else," Joey said, shaking his head.  
  
Yugi made no reply. He couldn't imagine why that man had been trying to kill the boy. Purposefully he strode up to the dazed form on the ground and knelt next to him. "Are you alright?" He felt his Yami disappear back into the Puzzle.  
  
Marik shook the cobwebs from his mind. "You . . . you saved my life," he said quietly. "I am forever indebted to you." He looked up, and the other teens gasped.  
  
"It can't be!" Joey cried. "No way!"  
  
Yugi stared. "Marik? Marik Ishtar?" he said in disbelief. He hadn't seen Marik ever since the end of Battle City, even though he knew the boy was living in Domino with his siblings!  
  
The boy blinked, shaking his head. "I do not know my name, nor do I remember you," he said. "But it appears that you know me."  
  
"Heck, of course we know you!" Joey yelled. "Quit tryin' to fool us!" He turned to Yugi. "You ain't gonna believe him, are you, Yug?! After all he's done to us?!" In spite of Marik's actions at the close of Battle City, Joey was still a bit suspicious of him.  
  
Marik hung his head. "I have been hearing what a despicable person I am." He got up slowly. "I am not deserving of your kindness. I should have been killed by that man." No one he had known before said that he was a good person. All he had to go on were these derogatory remarks. They must be true.  
  
"It's a trick, Yug!" Joey cried. "Don't fall for it!"  
  
Yugi shook his head. "I think he's telling the truth, Joey," he replied. "You know how he changed!"  
  
"Yug, you know what he's tried to do to you!" Joey persisted. "He's nothing but a jerk! You can't trust him from here to that fence!" Oh, yes, he knew how Marik how changed. He wanted to believe it, but another part of him screamed to not.  
  
Yugi ignored his friend. "Marik? Do you really have amnesia?" he asked.  
  
The other boy nodded sadly. "But perhaps it is better this way," he conceded. "I don't want to remember the terrible things I have done." He paused. "But why do you call me 'Marik'? That is a name that a nurse gave me. How do you know of it?"  
  
Yugi blinked. "That is your name!" he exclaimed.  
  
Joey stepped forward. He still wasn't buying any of this. "Look, Yugi saved your life. Now why don't you just get outta here?" If Marik would just leave, then Joey wouldn't have to keep being bothered by this feeling that he wasn't doing the right thing!  
  
Marik nodded slowly. "I will leave." He turned to go, feeling sad. What did he really have to live for? He had done treacherous things, and now everyone either wanted him dead or probably didn't care one way or another, even though he no longer remembered what he had done and now wanted to be better. This Yugi hadn't realized at the time who he'd rescued. He certainly would not have saved me if he had known, Marik thought to himself as he trudged down the street.  
  
Joey grunted. "Eh, good riddance." He waved his hand in a dismissive manner, ignoring the way his stomach was starting to knot up.  
  
"Joey!" Yugi scolded.  
  
"He's a creep, Yug!" Joey cried. "You know it and I know it!"  
  
"But he doesn't remember any of that anymore!" Yugi protested. "And, besides, he repented, Joey!! Doesn't that count for something?!"  
  
"He says he doesn't remember," Joey replied, "but I wouldn't be surprised if that slimeball is puttin' on an act!" He ignored Yugi's other remarks, crossing his arms firmly instead. Back to his memory came thoughts of Marik as "Namu." He had pretended to be their friend when he truly wasn't! And then he had mind-controlled Joey! How would they know if Marik wasn't pulling something again?  
  
"I don't think so," Yugi said firmly. "He's not the same Marik we knew, Joey," the violet-eyed boy said quietly. "He truly has changed and now he's in trouble. I think he needs a friend."  
  
Joey stared at his friend in disbelief. "You've gotta be kiddin' me!"  
  
"I'm serious, Joey," Yugi replied firmly, then looked around desperately for Marik.  
  
"He's flown the coop," Joey said, shaking his head. "He probably didn't want us to find out he was bluffin'!"  
  
Yugi ignored him. "Marik!!" he called, running down the street. "Marik, where are you?!" He didn't get an answer. I have to find him! he thought determinedly.  
  
****  
  
"Mr. Kaiba, sir?"  
  
Seto looked up at his secretary. "Yes?"  
  
"Sir, these are the files you wanted." The blonde girl handed him a stack of folders.  
  
Seto accepted them and opened the top one. "Thank you," he said emotionlessly, and the secretary nodded and left.  
  
Seto examined one document, then another. It was just as he'd thought—several thousands of dollars had disappeared from the accounts mysteriously in the last few weeks, and there wasn't any record of where it was going or who was taking it.  
  
Someone was embezzling money from the company. It was the only explanation. But why? And who?  
  
Seto stood up, holding the files in hand. He didn't exactly relish the prospect of chasing the embezzlers. The last time someone had embezzled money, Seto had nearly lost his life fighting with them.  
  
With a sigh, the blue-eyed boy walked out of his office and to the elevator. He needed to take a short break and decide how he would deal with this.  
  
When he got outside, he felt an urgent sense of impending doom and quickly ducked low. Without warning, a knife was thrown out of nowhere and landed right where he'd just been standing, and an ear-piercing scream split through the air!  
  
****  
  
Bakura gently changed the bandaging on his Yami's knife wound, trying to ignore the feelings of dizziness at seeing the deep abrasion and the blood. The thief was still asleep—or unconscious—Bakura couldn't tell which.  
  
He had tried to call Yugi to warn him about what Yami Bakura had said, but the other boy still hadn't returned from school. The tomb raider's words still gave gentle, innocent Bakura the chills. They had made many enemies through the years, but these new ones were relying on some supernatural dark powers that made them even more fearsome—according to Yami Bakura, that is. But Bakura supposed that his Yami knew what he was talking about. After having been around for several thousand years, one would tend to become familiar with dark powers when they saw them, the boy reasoned, and he shivered.  
  
With a sigh of relief, Bakura finally finished his task and went to wash his hands of the blood that had gotten on them. As he stood at the sink, he couldn't shake the feeling that someone was there. His heart pounding, he whirled around, splashing water on the opposite wall. No one was in sight, but Bakura could still feel a piercing gaze boring into him. He finished washing his hands as fast as he could and then ran back to his Yami. The ancient spirit wasn't a lot of company at this point, but Bakura still felt safer being with him rather than being alone with . . . whatever that was.  
  
"Oh Yami," the boy whispered aloud, "I do wish you'd wake up!" For more reasons than one, he added silently. Even now he felt like something was watching him from the doorway of the room.  
  
"Who are you?!" he cried bravely. "What do you want with me?! If you wish to speak to me, please just come right out and say so!" It made him quite nervous to have an unknown something staring at him. "But please don't hurt my Yami!" he added frantically. "He's been hurt quite enough already!" He had the feeling that whatever was watching him wasn't impressed.  
  
****  
  
Seto straightened up, staring at the knife angrily. He looked around for the guilty party who had thrown it, but no one was around at all.  
  
Except for Tea, who was standing in horror on the sidewalk, her blue eyes wide. Seto assumed that she had been the one who screamed.  
  
"Did you see who threw that?" he demanded.  
  
Tea shook her head. "No, I didn't," she said shakily. "I . . . I was just coming down the street when I saw it fly through the air. . . . Kaiba, it almost hit you!!" she burst out.  
  
Seto grunted. He knew that only too well.  
  
Within a few minutes, the police arrived, having been summoned by another passerby who had witnessed the attempted murder.  
  
Officer Gabrielle Valesquez didn't look surprised when she got out of the car and found Seto there with Tea. "Man, someone's always trying to kill one of you kids," she said, shaking her head.  
  
"I'm starting to get sick of it," Seto replied, narrowing his eyes.  
  
****  
  
Yugi ran down the streets frantically, calling for Marik. He shouldn't have let the other boy walk away, but he had been busy trying to convince Joey that Marik hadn't been lying. He was sure Joey still didn't believe that, but his friend had come along anyway to lend a hand in the search.  
  
"Marik! Hey man, quit playin' hide-and-seek!" Joey yelled in frustration. "Yug's all worried about you!"  
  
And it was true. Yugi *was* worried about Marik. Apparently the Rare Hunters, who had all been freed of the mind-controlling powers of the Millennium Rod, were all coming after their former master to kill him. And if Marik really did have amnesia—and Yugi was certain that he did—then he really wouldn't remember any of what he'd done to warrant their anger. Yugi had always been the kindest, most forgiving person Joey had ever met—including being willing to forgive one of their worst enemies without a second thought. Joey was a forgiving person too—but still he found it hard to just up and trust Marik Ishtar like Yugi just had.  
  
Yami Yugi was also worried, but for a different reason. Obviously Marik no longer had the Millennium Rod . . . but then, where was it? Millennium Items becoming lost was a very dangerous matter. What if someone else found the Rod and unleashed the evil spirit inside? It was definitely cause for alarm.  
  
****  
  
Marik was far away from them by now. He was feeling sad and alone. For the briefest of moments, he had hoped that he had made a friend of his rescuer—but the Brooklyn boy there had informed him that he had done many terrible things to the boy who had saved him. He could never ask for friendship from them after whatever he'd done to them in the past, so he was alone again. How could anyone want to be his friend? He seriously doubted that he'd ever been nice to anyone, after what he'd been hearing.  
  
"I should have died," he said quietly. "I have nothing to live for, and it is my own fault." With that he sat down on the dock by the river and soon accidentally fell into a troubled sleep. He still wasn't completely well and everything he had just been through had made him exhausted. But this was a very dangerous place to sleep, as he would find out. 


	7. Snow

Bakura sat stiff in the chair, his heart pounding. Whatever had been watching him was gone—he could sense it—but he still felt plenty nervous. What if it came back?  
  
"You look like a stone statue."  
  
Poor Bakura leaped a mile high, screaming.  
  
"Foolish mortal." Yami Bakura was awake again, and he'd risen up on one elbow to smirk at the boy.  
  
"Yami!" Bakura cried. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"  
  
"I wasn't dead, you know," Yami Bakura remarked. "What in heaven's name are you so jumpy about?!"  
  
Quickly Bakura explained about the scary phantom that had been observing him. The tomb raider grew serious as he listened.  
  
"What do you think it was, Yami?" Bakura asked.  
  
"An evil presence from the Shadow Realm," his Yami replied, and Bakura was sorry he'd asked.  
  
"What could it have wanted?" the frightened boy queried now.  
  
Yami Bakura shook his head. "I don't know. But I'm certain that it will be back."  
  
"Oh my!" Bakura cried. He had to admit, he hoped his Yami would stay awake now and keep him company.  
  
"I should like to meet this dark entity," Yami Bakura mused.  
  
Bakura gasped. "Yami, you're not well! You can't possibly fight!"  
  
"I said 'meet it,' you dolt—not 'fight it'," Yami Bakura retorted, laying back down. That didn't mean, however, that he didn't want to fight it.  
  
"Yami, are you feeling alright?" Bakura wanted to know. Yami Bakura didn't like to lay around in bed any longer than he had to.  
  
"Of course I am, you fool," Yami Bakura insisted, but then he grimaced. He couldn't lay on his back without feeling pain, so he slowly tried to turn over onto his side again, with Bakura's assistance. Yami Bakura tried to shrug the boy off, but he found he was too weak.  
  
"Is there anything else I can do for you, Yami?" Bakura asked after helping to reposition the thief.  
  
"No," Yami Bakura replied firmly. "Just . . . let me sleep," he rasped, his eyes crossing and then closing. He knew a dark secret about himself that he wasn't willing to reveal—that knife had contained a poison that only affected non-mortals. It was a mild poison, but still irritating. It was taking all of his strength to fight it off.  
  
"Yami!" Bakura gasped. He shook his head in disbelief and gently pulled the quilt up around the thief's unconscious body. "That stab wound must have been terribly powerful to keep you out of commission for so long," the boy said softly. He couldn't know how right he was. "I hope you'll be alright."  
  
****  
  
After Seto and Tea reported the incident to the police, Gabrielle took the knife to study as evidence.  
  
"Kaiba, who would throw that thing at you?!" Tea cried, still very shaken up.  
  
"Whoever it was, they're going to pay," Seto growled, taking out his cell phone. He had to make certain that Mokuba was alright. If someone would attack him, who knows what they might try with his brother? Abducting Mokuba to get at the businessman was a favorite activity of his enemies.  
  
While he made his phone call, Tea paced around nervously, thoughts tumbling in her mind. Suddenly she saw a familiar boy coming towards them.  
  
"Tristan!" she said, waving. She didn't know that she had ever been so glad to see him as she was now! Seto didn't seem to be paying much attention to anyone around them. Téa was worried that the knife-thrower would return and he wouldn't even notice.  
  
"Hey, Tea," Tristan greeted. "What's up?"  
  
"Kaiba almost got skewered!" Tea cried with a shudder.  
  
"He looks fine to me," Tristan said, blinking as he watched Seto talk on the phone.  
  
"He is, lamebrain," Tea retorted, "but just barely!" She paused, shivering. "Why is it suddenly so cold out here?!"  
  
Seto hung up. Mokuba was fine. Now he could concentrate on other matters. "Incoming snowstorm," he said flatly.  
  
****  
  
"Man, it feels like the inside of a freezer out here!" Joey cried as a snowflake landed on his nose.  
  
"Marik must be out in this," Yugi said worriedly as the snow started falling harder. "He's not used to this kind of weather!"  
  
Joey shook his head. "Man, I can't believe we're actually lookin' for that guy," he muttered.  
  
"But we don't know what he might've gotten into, Joey," Yugi cried. "He doesn't remember anything about himself, and there's people trying to kill him!" He looked around. "We'll need to split up," he decided.  
  
"What?!" Joey exclaimed. "Yug, I don't know about that . . ."  
  
"We'll find him faster that way," Yugi replied, and took off down the deserted road before Joey could say anything more.  
  
"Man, Marik, you'd better not be leadin' us into one of your traps," Joey growled.  
  
****  
  
It seemed like hours since they had started searching, and now Joey was very frustrated as he trudged through the snow. He hadn't been planning on it to start snowing. He wasn't dressed entirely appropriately for such a thing.  
  
"I feel like I've been searchin' the whole city!" he cried to himself. "Man, if I was Marik, where the heck would I go?!" He looked around. "No sign of him around here." He walked over the docks by the river. "Marik! Hey, where are you?!"  
  
As he searched around and tried to see through the heavily-falling snow, Joey spotted a figure curled up against the wall of an old shack. "Marik?" he called, but didn't receive an answer.  
  
Slowly he went over closer and saw that it was definitely Marik. He'd recognize the other boy's long blonde hair anywhere. Marik had pulled his legs up to his chest and was hugging his knees, having laid his head across them. He was covered with a dusting of snow and seemed to be asleep, but . . .  
  
Joey gulped as he knelt next to his old enemy, shaking him on the shoulder. "Marik! Come on, this ain't no place for a slumber party! Wake up!!" The Egyptian boy didn't answer, and a chill ran up Joey's spine. If Marik had . . . died out here in the cold, it would always haunt Joey. He would remember the other boy's sad eyes and always wonder if Marik really had been telling the truth.  
  
Roughly Joey pushed Marik's head and shoulders back and leaned down to listen for breath. To his relief, the other boy was still alive, but he seemed to be in a state deeper than just normal sleep.  
  
"Man, I've gotta get you out of here," Joey muttered, trying to pull the boy up. Marik's limp body was heavy, and Joey didn't know if he'd be able to carry him very far. He tried to brush the snow off the boy's clothes and hair.  
  
"Joey!!" he heard Yugi call, and he looked up, relieved.  
  
"Yug, give me a hand here!" Joey called back, and in an instant Yugi was at his side.  
  
"Joey, what happened to him?!" Yugi cried in horror, summoning his Yami and helping to lift Marik up.  
  
"I dunno," Joey replied, shaking his head. "I guess he fell asleep out in the cold or somethin'." Now he was trying to ignore the feeling of guilt that was threatening to engulf him. Why would Marik have fallen asleep out here . . . unless . . . unless his story was true and he had nowhere to go?  
  
"Marik!" Yugi called to the boy. "Marik, can you hear me?" He paused upon not receiving any kind of an answer. "We must get him back where it's warm," he stated grimly. "Immediately!"  
  
Unseen by them, a dark figure watched in the shadows with interest. "So, Marik Ishtar is no longer in possession of the Millennium Rod," he mused. "But then who has it now?" He sneered evilly. "It shan't be hard for me to find out who does. And when I have it once more, nothing will stop me from creating havoc throughout the world!"  
  
****  
  
After taking Tea and Tristan to their homes, Seto was heading for his own home when he spotted Yugi and Joey trying to carry a lifeless body through the swirling drifts of white. Blinking in confusion, Seto directed his chauffeur to drive over to where the other boys were.  
  
"Man, Yug," he heard Joey say, "you don't think that's Kaiba, do you?"  
  
Before Yugi could answer, Seto rolled the limo's tinted window down and looked at them. "What happened?" he demanded, recognizing the motionless form as Marik Ishtar. Why were Ishtars turning up in his life right and left?! Now the only one he hadn't seen was Rishid.  
  
"Hey, if you'll give us a lift to the game shop, we'd be happy to explain," Joey replied.  
  
Seto nodded in agreement. "Very well. Get in." He opened the door.  
  
"Thank you," Yugi smiled in relief. He and Joey gently laid Marik in the limo and then climbed in after him.  
  
Seto regarded the unconscious boy with a piercing gaze. "Now," he said aloud as he moved over to make room, "what happened?"  
  
Between the two of them, Yugi and Joey told of their encounter with Marik and the ensuing search for him after he had sadly walked away, while they tried to restore the circulation to Marik's bare arms.  
  
"He ain't used to the weather here," Joey said as Marik moaned and shivered. "There's no telling how long he was layin' there in the snow before I found him."  
  
Seto didn't answer that, but he directed the chauffeur to turn the heat up. "He doesn't have the Millennium Rod?" the blue-eyed boy demanded suddenly. If Marik didn't have it, then where was it? For some reason, Seto sensed that it was important. Yugi had held the Rod for a time, but then Seto knew it had been given back to Marik.  
  
"No." Yugi shook his head as he took his jacket off and laid it across Marik's shuddering form. "The Rare Hunters were freed from his mind control after Battle City and now they all want their old master dead." He also was sensing that the location of the Rod was important, but he didn't quite know why.  
  
****  
  
Ishizu Ishtar looked at her Egyptian exhibit in the Domino Museum, a faraway look in her blue eyes. She knew that her younger brother had gone missing; in fact, she knew many of the details about what had happened to him recently. She knew about the car crash and the events that followed, but what she didn't know was what had happened to Marik before the car crash. She didn't know how he had come to be involved in the accident, but she did know that it wasn't just the Rare Hunters who wanted him dead. Marik had learned a deadly secret, one that controlled the fates of many—and once his other enemies found out that he was still alive, he would be in far worse danger than he had been before.  
  
She sighed sadly. She missed her brother so! More than anything she wanted to go to him, even though she knew he wouldn't remember her. But that was when he'd need her more than ever. She smiled as the Tauk glowed, reminding her that she would see Marik again very soon.  
  
The woman dropped into a chair, massaging her forehead. Right now she didn't have either of her brothers with her. Rishid lay at home, nearly dead, with Shadi watching over him. The same night Marik had vanished, Rishid had been found badly beaten. Ishizu still didn't know if he would make it. And there, all alone in the lonely basement, the poor woman began to cry.  
  
****Tea stood in front of the mirror, brushing her hair. For one brief moment, she thought she caught another reflection in the glass and she whirled around, her heart pounding. "Who's there?!" she cried. Her room was empty; no one else was in sight.  
  
"Tea," an eerily familiar voice laughed, and the girl clutched her brush frantically. She could never forget that voice—it was the evil priest from her dream!  
  
"What do you want?!" Tea demanded. "I don't want you here. Get out!!"  
  
The voice laughed again, but Tea felt him depart. Now she knew for certain that he wasn't Seto Kaiba.  
  
****  
  
Grampa Muto looked up when Yugi and Joey brought Marik's shivering form into the game shop. "Good heavens! What has happened?" the elderly man cried. He knew who Marik was from the tales Yugi and Joey had told, and he knew what the boy looked like from seeing him on TV at times with Ishizu, but he had never expected him to be coming into this house—at least not in this way.  
  
"It's a long story, Gramps," Joey said with a sigh, shaking his head.  
  
"I promise I'll tell you all about it later, Grampa," Yugi said, "but right now we have to get Marik warmed up!" A few new snowflakes fell out of Marik's hair and adorned the floor.  
  
Grampa Muto nodded and opened the door leading to their home upstairs. "Of course, Yugi," he said, again feeling immensely proud of his grandson—and of Joey as well. They were being so dear, helping this former enemy of theirs.  
  
Quickly Yugi and Joey carried Marik's limp body into the guest bedroom and laid the boy on the bed. "I think the color has started to return to his face," Yugi said in relief, removing the Egyptian's shoes.  
  
"Yeah," Joey agreed. "I guess he got pretty warm in ol' Kaiba's limo," he remarked.  
  
Gently Yugi covered Marik with the soft comforter and then nodded in satisfaction. "I think you probably found him just in time, Joey," the violet-eyed boy said softly. "You saved his life."  
  
Joey looked embarrassed. "Eh, well . . . I didn't want the guy to wind up dyin'," he said, and Yugi smiled.  
  
"I know," he assured his friend. "He'll probably sleep through the night now," he mused. "Maybe I should call that friend of Grampa's who's a doctor."  
  
"Couldn't hurt," Joey shrugged.  
  
****  
  
Marik was having a strange dream. He was running from those who wanted him dead when a malicious-looking boy appeared in front of him, an angry look in his eyes. "Where is it?" he demanded.  
  
"I do not know what you mean," Marik replied, backing up fearfully.  
  
"It was yours and before that it was mine," the other boy hissed. "And you *will* get it back, or you will be . . . punished." With that he was gone.  
  
Marik stood staring, his heart pounding, when suddenly another wicked-looking person stepped out of the shadows. "You stupid boy," he growled, and began to curse Marik in another language. Over and over again, Marik was beaten viciously while this seemingly ageless, evil person continued to scream at him in his ancient tongue.  
  
"Please!" Marik cried in vain. "Please stop!!" He felt like a helpless child.  
  
"Weakling," the satanic entity hissed in English. "Foolish weakling!"  
  
****  
  
Yugi gasped as he watched Marik flinch and cry out. The other boy was still asleep—or perhaps unconscious, since he couldn't be awakened—and he was obviously having a horrid dream. The doctor had already been there and had confirmed that Marik was alright, much to Yugi's relief. Now he just had to wait for the other boy to regain consciousness. Marik had settled down again for the most part, but now he was moaning softly. Yugi shook his head worriedly.  
  
"Yugi," Yami Yugi said, coming out of the Puzzle. "I fear that we are all in grave danger."  
  
Yugi nodded solemnly. "I was afraid of that, Yami," he admitted.  
  
"Marik holds secrets in his mind that could affect the entire world . . . if he could only remember." Yami Yugi crossed his arms and shook his head, watching the sleeping boy in concern. 


	8. Seth

Again Seto tried to head for home, and strange thoughts swirled through his mind. How would Marik Ishtar have gotten amnesia? Was he somehow mixed up in everything?  
  
Suddenly his cell phone rang and the boy snatched it up. "Kaiba," he said coldly.  
  
"Sir?" an unfamiliar voice said. "This is Officer Cheryl Banks."  
  
Seto blinked. "What is it?" he demanded.  
  
"Sir, the knife that was thrown at you seems to be from the remains of a set that was found amid the wreckage of a car crash about fifty miles from here," the officer stated.  
  
"I see." Seto's eyes narrowed. This was certainly intriguing. He would have to pay a visit to the crash site. He had a pretty good idea that he knew which accident the woman was speaking of—most likely it was the one Tea had thought he'd been involved in several days before.  
  
After hanging up with the policewoman, Seto dialed his home number and soon was talking to Mokuba.  
  
"Hi, big brother!" the little boy said happily.  
  
"Hey kid," Seto replied affectionately.  
  
"Are you coming home soon, Seto?" Mokuba asked hopefully.  
  
"I will," Seto assured him, "but first I have to take care of a few more things."  
  
"Oh, okay." Mokuba sounded disappointed, and a bit worried. "I miss you, big brother," he said softly.  
  
Seto smiled. "I miss you, too, kid," he replied.  
  
"Please be careful, Seto," Mokuba pleaded now.  
  
"Don't worry," Seto said gently. "I'll be okay, and I'll be back before you know it!"  
  
After saying their goodbyes, the brothers hung up.  
  
Seto looked out the tinted window grimly. He might be walking into something dangerous, but it wouldn't be the first time, and anyway, things were already dangerous. He had to solve this mystery before someone—especially Mokuba—was hurt terribly!  
****  
Marik's eyes slowly opened and he looked around, trying to focus. It was a sense of deja vu he felt as he realized he was laying in a bed and covered with a soft quilt.  
  
Then the boy who had rescued him before was bending over him, looking relieved to see him awake. "Marik! Are you okay?" he asked.  
  
Marik blinked, surprised. "I . . . I am alright," he said, sitting up, "but I . . . I feel as though I have been in a state of oblivion for some time."  
  
"You have been," the other boy replied with a nod, straightening up. "You must have fallen asleep out by the docks. Joey found you there in the snow."  
  
Marik was startled, remembering the Brooklyn boy from earlier. He was the last person Marik would've expected would actually save him. He pondered on this for a while and then again looked up at his benefactor. "Who are you?" he asked now.  
  
"I'm Yugi Muto," the other boy said with a smile. "You're here in my house. And when morning comes, there's someone I'd like you to meet."  
  
Marik blinked. "And who might that be?"  
  
"Ishizu," Yugi said at last, not sure how much he should reveal. "She works at the museum."  
  
Marik nodded slowly. "Do I know this Ishizu?"  
  
"Sure," Yugi smiled again. "She's your sister."  
  
Marik gasped. "I . . . I have a sister?!" His lavender eyes were wide and hopeful, then suddenly were sad once again.  
  
"What's wrong?" Yugi asked worriedly.  
  
Marik shook his head. He hadn't treated anyone well, from what he'd been told, so what were the chances that his sister had been an exception? She probably either hated him or was completely terrified of him. "Will . . . will she wish to see me?" he said at last in a soft voice.  
  
It suddenly dawned on Yugi what Marik was thinking and he gasped. "Ishizu loves you, Marik!" he cried. "She loves you unconditionally in spite of all you've done to others. And you love her too," he added. "You would never hurt her!"  
  
Marik listened attentively. He really had a sister who cared about him? He had longed so much for just such a knowledge over the last few days! And to know that he hadn't ever harmed her—such a relief.  
  
He paused. There was something else he had longed for—a friend. And as he looked at the short boy in front of him, he knew he had found one.  
****  
Seto soon arrived at the accident site and found a lone police officer examining the area. When the boy stepped out of his limo, the woman straightened up and looked at him.  
  
"Oh, Mr. Kaiba, sir," she said, nodding. "I've been expecting you." Seto recognized the officer's voice as that of Cheryl Banks, whom he'd spoken to earlier on the phone.  
  
"You have." It wasn't a question. Seto glanced around, looking at the wreckage site, which was still sealed off by yellow Caution tape. "What happened here?" he asked. "What is this car crash you told me about?"  
  
Cheryl looked at him seriously. "The cars collided and burst into flames, but no one knows exactly how it happened," she reported. "There were no survivors."  
  
"None at all?" Seto pressed.  
  
Cheryl paused. "Well . . . now that I think of it, I remember hearing that there *was* one survivor," she said slowly.  
  
"Who?" Seto demanded. Maybe that was the person who had tried to knife him!  
  
Cheryl shook her head. "No one knows. He didn't have any ID on him and so he was just a John Doe. When he woke up in the hospital, he had complete amnesia." She went on to explain that shortly after the boy had revived, several strange men had burst into the hospital and had chased him all through it. No one knew the men's intentions, but the boy had told a nurse that they were trying to kill him. "Somehow he escaped from the hospital," she finished, "and no one's seen him since then."  
  
Seto looked suspicious at this story, then thoughtful. "Was he an Egyptian?" he asked.  
  
Cheryl gave him an odd look. "I believe so," she said at last, "but I can't remember for sure. I never saw him—I only heard the reports from the hospital workers."  
  
Seto considered all this. It seemed to indicate that Marik was the survivor—and that meant that he was linked to the mystery. But he couldn't have been the one throwing the knife—he had been practically comatose laying in the snow at the time, and what was more, he wouldn't have had any memory of Seto. And he wouldn't have any reason to knife him even if he did.  
  
The blue-eyed boy turned to look over the steep ravine just at the edge of the road. "Could there have been any other survivors?" he asked thoughtfully. What if someone else had survived, injured Marik in some way, and then took off with the knife taken from the set?  
  
Cheryl looked surprised at the question. "I don't see how anyone else could have survived, Mr. Kaiba," she said quickly. "All the bodies in the cars were completely incinerated."  
  
"I see." Seto folded his arms. "Then I assume this survivor was not found in one of the cars."  
  
"No sir." Cheryl shook her head firmly. "They found him laying on the pavement and naturally assumed that he'd been thrown from one of the cars before it exploded. He was cut and bruised quite badly and sustained a concussion, but amazingly he didn't seem to have any broken bones." She snapped a picture of the site with her camera.  
  
Seto raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that rather unusual for someone who was thrown from a moving vehicle?"  
  
"Very unusual, sir," Cheryl agreed. "But not impossible."  
  
Seto nodded slowly. He found this officer's behavior rather . . . strange. "This accident was several days ago," he said now. "It seems that everything has been cleared away by now, so . . ." He scrutinized Cheryl suspiciously. "May I ask what you're doing here this late at night?"  
  
Cheryl's eyes widened, but she quickly adopted a passive stare and crossed her arms. "You do recall what I told you about the knife, Mr. Kaiba," she said flatly.  
  
"Yes, I do," Seto nodded, "but somehow I don't think that's why you're here. The knife set—or what's left of it—must be in police custody by now."  
  
Cheryl glared at him. "This is official police business, sir, and I must admit, you're starting to get in my way. You wouldn't want me to get fired now, would you?"  
  
Seto looked back at her calmly. "Would I be the cause of your getting fired, or would it be because you're getting involved in illegal activities?" He could tell that Cheryl was very angry now.  
  
"Mr. Kaiba, I don't care how much property you own or how much power you have in this city," she growled, poking him in the chest, "I won't allow you to talk to me this way. I could arrest you for demeaning my name!" She turned around. "Now, sir, if you'll excuse me I really have a lot of police work to do."  
  
Seto nodded. "Don't let me keep you." He also turned as if he were about to leave and listened to the woman's footsteps get farther and farther away while he watched her out of the corner of his eye. When he was certain she was gone, he turned back and went to go after her. Cheryl had definitely acted strange, and Seto was determined to find out why.  
****  
Bakura wandered through his silent house, looking around cautiously. Everything seemed to be in order, but he was still wary. He had felt all alone and rather uneasy since his Yami had been stabbed and was spending most of his time sleeping.  
  
At least he'd been able to get in touch with Yugi and warn him about what the thief had said. Yugi had then brought Bakura up to date on what was happening elsewhere. Bakura had been shocked to hear of Marik's reappearance and horrified to hear that the Rare Hunters were all after him. Was all of that somehow connected to everything else? The case was just a tangled mess right now, but maybe soon the pieces would start to fit.  
  
With a sigh, Bakura walked out into the kitchen and then shuddered. He didn't even like being in that room right now, but he knew he had to eat. If he fell sick himself, he wouldn't be able to care for his Yami.  
  
The telephone rang then and startled him. Who would be calling now?  
  
Slowly Bakura lifted the receiver, hoping it would be Yugi or one of the others . . . or even his father. "Hello?" he said softly.  
  
"Are you havin' a good day?" a scratchy voice asked.  
  
Bakura blinked. "Come again?"  
  
"You'd better be havin' a good day," the voice went right on, "because you ain't got many more of 'em to enjoy on this earth!" With an unearthly cackle, the line went dead.  
  
Bakura was horrified. "Hello? Hello, who is this?!" he cried, but to no avail. He collapsed into a kitchen chair, shaking.  
****  
Mokuba was sitting in the living room, anxiously waiting for Seto to return. It had been ages since his brother had called and told him that he'd be gone and now Mokuba was getting worried. "Where could he be?!" he said aloud.  
  
"I'm right here," a sneering voice replied, and Mokuba looked up with a gasp. Standing before him was a strange boy in ancient clothing. He had the same long bangs and blue eyes as Seto, but Mokuba knew in an instant that this wasn't his brother.  
  
"Who are you?!" the little boy demanded, backing up in fright.  
  
The other boy smirked, crossing his arms over his bare chest. "I'm your brother," he said smoothly. "Don't tell me you don't recognize your own brother!"  
  
"You're not my brother!" Mokuba cried. "You may look like him, but you're nothing but a big phony!! Who sent you here?!"  
  
"I sent myself," the boy replied, reaching to grab for Mokuba. The younger boy darted out of the way, hiding behind the couch.  
  
"Oh Seto, where are you?!" he wailed. Suddenly thinking of something alarming, he looked up at the new arrival again. "Did you hurt my brother??"  
  
"That fool?" The boy advanced again, and Mokuba knocked a table into his path.  
  
"If you've hurt Seto, you're gonna pay!!!" Mokuba screamed, his heart pounding.  
  
"You shrimp." The boy grabbed Mokuba and wrenched his arm around painfully. "You can't stop me from carrying out my plans!!"  
  
Mokuba struggled against him, but in vain. This boy's touch was pure evil, and he wanted nothing more than to be rid of it—and him. "Who are you?!" he demanded. "You've shown your true colors! You're not my brother!!!"  
  
"My name," the boy hissed, ignoring Mokuba's other comments, "is Seth."  
****  
Seto had tracked Cheryl into the dense woods on the other side of the woods and then all the way back to the accident site, where there was now no sign of the woman. Seto looked around suspiciously. Something wasn't right.  
  
Without warning, a strong leather cord suddenly wrapped around Seto's neck and the boy gasped. Someone was trying to choke him to death, just as they'd tried earlier on Marik!  
  
He struggled against his opponent, trying to turn around and see who it was, but when he attempted this they only tightened the pressure on the cord.  
  
Seto's throat was burning. There was only one other thing he could do. He grabbed at the cord and pulled, trying to get it away from his neck, but his assailant seemed to know exactly what they were doing. With a swift kick to Seto's back, they tried to cause him to lose his footing and fall forward over the ravine.  
  
Seto struggled frantically to regain his balance and swayed wildly. If he started to go over the edge, the only thing keeping him up would be the cord, and he would hang! 


	9. Meeting

Fighting hard, Seto abruptly reached behind him and grabbed the hand holding the cord, causing him to stop his wild descent and also loosening the pull of the cord. The person attached to the hand struggled to yank free, but Seto refused to let go. He squeezed hard on the wrist, hoping that his attacker would let go of the cord entirely.  
  
His plan worked. With a cry of pain, the person dropped the cord and retreated into the darkness. Seto collapsed to the ground, coughing and sputtering and trying to catch his breath. He could hear the person running through the trees and brush, but he didn't have the strength to look up and see who it was. He didn't have to, tho—he knew that voice. It was Cheryl. The policewoman had tried to kill him.  
  
****  
  
Mokuba fought hard against Seth's viselike grip. "What do you want with me?!" he cried.  
  
"You'll be my prisoner until I find my Millennium Rod," Seth replied wickedly. "And then you'll be under my control!" Though no one knew it, Seth had a dark secret than even he didn't realize—he wasn't quite himself.  
  
"No he won't."  
  
Both Mokuba and Seth looked up. "Big brother!" Mokuba exclaimed in delight.  
  
Seto strode into the room, his blue eyes flashing angrily. "Let my brother go," he ordered.  
  
Seth growled in frustration. "You won't dare to come closer. I have the power to back up my threats, and your little brother is mine now!"  
  
"You're a liar!" Seto moved closer. "You don't have your powers anymore."  
  
Seth's eyes narrowed. Obviously a bluff wouldn't work. But of course . . . that bluff would be the truth before long. "Soon I will," he vowed.  
  
Seto caught the evil boy's arm and wrenched it away from Mokuba. "But you know, I wouldn't care if you had an entire legion of devils backing you up. I would defeat every single one of them to keep Mokuba from your evil clutches."  
  
Seth grabbed Seto's arm and twisted it painfully. "You are brave, but foolish. A foolish mortal boy. You won't stand a chance against my all-powerful forces!"  
  
"We'll just see about that." Seto wasn't going to back down, and Mokuba looked up at him fearfully.  
  
Seth pulled himself free and smirked at Seto. "We certainly will." With that he vanished into nothingness and prepared to lay the groundwork for exactly how he would secure the Millennium Rod. Then he would return.  
  
Mokuba collapsed into Seto's arms, sobbing. "Oh, big brother!" He shuddered, just wanting to get the memory of Seth out of his mind.  
  
Seto held him close. "It's alright," he said softly. Inside he was fuming. Apparently Ishizu was right—the evil high priest had returned. Seto would recognize his sneering, evil face anywhere.  
  
Mokuba looked up at the older boy, tears streaking his face. "Seto, who was that awful guy?" he cried.  
  
Seto shook his head. "Someone from the past, kid," he said softly. "But don't worry. I won't let him do anything to you."  
  
Mokuba snuggled into his brother's arms, feeling warm and safe. Suddenly he noticed something a bit strange. "Seto," he exclaimed, "what's that red mark on your neck?!"  
  
Seto blinked. He hadn't remembered about his battle scars from the incident earlier. "It's nothing," he said at last, and ruffled Mokuba's hair.  
  
Mokuba wasn't fooled. "Seto, did someone try to hurt you?" he said, frightened.  
  
Seto sighed. "Don't worry about it, Mokuba," he told him. "I'm fine, kid." He smiled at his brother and the younger boy smiled back.  
  
****  
  
When Bakura awoke the next morning, he discovered he'd fallen asleep at the kitchen table. "Oh my," he said softly as he straightened up. He had stayed awake for hours last night after he'd gotten that phone call, and apparently he had eventually dozed off.   
  
He rubbed at his neck. Being positioned with his head on the table had given him a horrid kink.  
  
"You must have been tired," a gravelly voice commented. "I can't imagine anyone would use the table as their pillow unless they were absolutely fatigued!"  
  
Bakura started, knocking a spoon onto the floor. Yami Bakura was sitting at the other side of the circular table, drinking chocolate milk. Bakura stared at him in disbelief. "Yami!" he cried. "Are you feeling better?"  
  
Yami Bakura raised an eyebrow at him. "If I wasn't, do you think I would've made it down the stairs?" He was well aware of how often he had been passing out, and he was tired of it. He had woken up a while before and discovered, much to his satisfaction, that he didn't feel so extremely exhausted and weak anymore. It seemed that he had finally beaten the poison.  
  
Bakura smiled in relief. "I'm so glad," he declared. "I was terribly worried about you, Yami!"  
  
Yami Bakura grunted in reply. "This isn't over, you fool," he warned, afraid that Bakura would forget about the dangers. "Your friends may all wind up injured or dead before the end is even in sight!"  
  
Bakura was horrified at that thought. He hadn't forgotten what his Yami had said earlier, and of course the phone call he'd received last night had only fueled his fears. "I can't let that happen!" he cried, shaking his head.  
  
"Fool." Yami Bakura didn't look surprised, but he didn't look impressed, either. "As if you could stop the forces of darkness."  
  
"Well, I am certainly going to try!" Bakura declared.  
  
****  
  
The next morning Seto called the police station to talk to Cheryl. He knew that he didn't have the concrete information to prove it was she who had tried to strangle him, but he wanted to confront her with what he knew.  
  
He wasn't surprised, however, to hear that Cheryl was unavailable. The police chief told him that Cheryl had requested a leave of absence for the next few days while she tended to a "family problem" and that he had granted it.  
  
Now Seto's eyes narrowed as he prepared to go to school. He doubted that it was really a family problem. More than likely, Cheryl just wanted to get away from him and concoct more of her plans . . . whatever they were. Another trip to the accident site was definitely in order.  
  
****  
  
That day at school, Joey was appalled to find yet another strange message on Yugi's desk.  
  
Give it up, Yugi!  
  
"I don't get it!" Tea said, shaking her head. "These messages seem to be targeting Yugi alone, but we've all been attacked. Could it be that there's more than just one mystery going on?!"  
  
"Oh, I think you can count on that, Tea," Joey replied, shaking his head.  
  
"Where *is* Yugi, anyway?" Tristan wondered, coming up to them.  
  
"I think he was takin' Marik to see Ishizu," Joey replied.  
  
Tea nodded. She had stopped by before school to see Yugi and he had brought her up to date on what had happened to Marik. "He said they'd be at the museum for a while," she supplied.  
  
Tristan, however, hadn't heard. "Would you run that by me again?" he cried, and Joey and Tea spent the next while informing him. Tristan was stunned, to put it mildly. Sometimes he had seen Marik out riding his motorcycle, but he had never tried to talk to the Egyptian. It seemed awkward to him somehow. Now Tristan wondered if he should have talked to Marik.  
  
The rest of the schoolday proceeded without further incident, much to Tea's relief, but she wondered how things were going at the Domino Museum. How would Marik react to seeing Ishizu? Would it restore any of his memories? What would happen if it did?  
  
****  
  
Right at that moment, Marik was looking around at the museum in awe. "Where is this Ishizu?" he asked, touching the front of a sarcophagus they were passing.  
  
Yugi blinked as they passed a martial arts exhibit. "Well, she's probably downstairs with the Egyptian stuff," he mused.  
  
But no sooner had he spoken than the mysterious woman appeared. "Welcome," she said softly.  
  
Both boys whirled around. Yugi was used to Ishizu's entrances by now, but Marik was startled.  
  
Ishizu smiled gently at Marik. "Greetings, dear brother," she said, stepping closer to him. Marik was here! The Tauk had shown her he would come today, but still it was an immense joy to see him. It seemed so long since she had! And now Rishid was so hurt. . . .  
  
Marik blinked. "Sister?" He shook his head sadly. "I do not remember you." This woman was his sister? But she looked so magnificent! So queenly! Marik felt extremely small compared to her.  
  
Ishizu gathered the younger boy into an embrace, her blue eyes shining as she tried to ignore the tears standing in them. "I know," she told him softly. "I know."  
  
****  
  
Tea was just walking down a street after school when a bullet flew past her ear. With a gasp, she realized someone was shooting at her!  
  
Frantically she tore down the street, running from the unknown assailant. Suddenly a hand grabbed her and pulled her into some brush. Tea let out a shriek.  
  
"Shhh! You'll alert them!" a familiar voice said coldly.  
  
Tea blinked. "Kaiba?!"  
  
Seto nodded. "That's right."  
  
Tea stared at him. "What's going on around here?!" she demanded.  
  
"That's what I'm trying to find out," Seto told her. "That person was following me, so I hid in here to see what they'd do. I didn't know they would start shooting." His eyes narrowed. "Get down. Here he comes."  
  
Tea dove for cover and watched as the man looked around furtively, then slowly walked on.  
  
Seto started to get up.  
  
"Where are you going?!" Tea demanded.  
  
"To follow him," Seto replied abruptly.  
  
Tea scrambled to her feet. "Not without me you're not!"  
  
Seto grunted.  
  
****  
  
Marik was sitting with Ishizu on a bench in the museum. She had shared with him much of his past, but she had left out everything about the Millennium Rod and Yami Marik. She knew that if she told him of the terrible things he and his Yami had done, it would completely devastate him—so she had told him only of the good things about him, including that he had repented of any wrongdoings he had committed. Also she had told him about Rishid, but when he had asked where he was, Ishizu could only swallow hard and reply that he was away. Somehow she just couldn't bring herself to tell Marik how hurt his brother was, even though she knew she would have to. But just not now. . . .   
  
Marik sat silent for a while, taking all of this in. "I wish I could remember you, sister," he said softly. "And Rishid too. You both sound like people I would want to remember."  
  
Ishizu laid a hand on his shoulder. "Do not worry. You will in time," she assured him, hoping that it was the truth. Although she had seen many things, she hadn't seen whether her brother's memory would ever be restored. The Tauk only granted her occassional visions, even though often it seemed like more. Ishizu also didn't know whether Rishid would ever get better. But she prayed he would.  
  
Marik looked up at her with his frightened lavender eyes. "Dear sister, may I come back with you?" he asked pleadingly. She had told him that they and Rishid all lived together. He wanted to go be with them so badly!  
  
Ishizu looked back at him sadly. "I am sorry, Marik," she said softly, "but not yet. There are those who wish to take your life. I foresee grave danger should you return to our home." The ex-Rare Hunters still patrolled the property often, she knew. If they saw Marik in the home, she hated to think what would happen. As much as she wanted Marik to come live with her and Rishid again, she knew now was not the time.  
  
Marik was horrified. "Will they come after you as well, sister?" he cried.  
  
Ishizu shook her head. "You need not worry about that, Marik." They had already hurt Rishid to the point of death. But somehow she felt that they wouldn't come after her as well. Not yet. She paused. "For right now I believe you should stay with Yugi Muto and his grandfather. Your enemies would not think to look for you there." Though they knew Marik had repented, the Rare Hunters didn't think he was associating with Yugi.  
  
Marik nodded slowly, still looking worried. He had the feeling that Ishizu wasn't telling him everything.   
  
"Take courage, my brother," Ishizu told him gently. "It will be alright." She paused again. "I love you, Marik," she declared softly.  
  
Marik looked up at her and smiled slowly. "I . . . I still do not remember you, dear sister, but I am certain that I love you as well."  
  
Ishizu took him in her arms again, and this time she didn't try to hold back the tears.  
  
****  
  
Tea glanced around nervously. She couldn't believe they had actually tracked this guy to the railroad yard. "Almost no one travels by train anymore," she remarked. "What could he want here?!"  
  
Seto didn't answer. It was possible that the man wanted something arriving on one of the freight trains, but Seto was starting to have a very bad feeling that the man had known all along that he was being followed and was leading them into a trap.  
  
The two teens wandered around among the old freight cars, looking for the elusive sniper. Suddenly Tea heard a low moan and then silence. "Kaiba?" she said quaveringly, looking around. The boy was nowhere to be seen. "Kaiba, where are you?!" she demanded.  
  
At that moment a strong arm restrained her and a strange cloth was clapped over her nose and mouth. Tea tried to scream, tried to fight against her captor, but the struggle was useless. Before she could stop it, she was drifting into the darkness. 


	10. Horrific Visions

Notes: JP has been wantin' to get into one of my fics for a while, so here's to you, JP! ^_^ The radio station was his idea too :^)  
  
  
Tea awoke slowly with the strange sensation that the ground was moving underneath her. As she returned to full awareness, she realized that it actually was. She also realized that she didn't remember what had happened before this.  
  
"Where am I?!" she cried, sitting up and looking around frantically. It was dark all around her, and she could hear soft breathing nearby. "Who's here?!" she demanded, feeling around in the blackness. Her hand brushed against another hand—this one limp and cold—and a chill ran up her spine.  
  
Quickly she bent forward, listening, and was relieved to discover that this person was the one she had heard breathing. He—she was sure it was a he—was alive, but he didn't seem to be conscious.  
  
The other person moaned softly but didn't awaken. Tea gasped, blinking. "Kaiba?!" she exclaimed. It was so dark in here that she couldn't see a thing, but she recognized the voice. And then she remembered what had happened earlier. They had been shadowing someone in the railroad yard when Seto had disappeared and Tea herself had been attacked. . . . What if they'd both been abducted and thrown onto a train?! It was a horrifying thought . . . but it made sense, considering the feel of the moving floor.  
  
"Kaiba, wake up!!" Tea pleaded, shaking the boy hard on the shoulder. "We're on a moving train!!" Upon not receiving an answer, Tea tried again, feeling desperate. "Oh please wake up!!" she wailed, but still to no avail. She leaned back, her heart racing. Something must be very wrong.  
  
She bent down to check Seto's vital signs again. His pulse was normal and so was his breathing . . . so why couldn't she revive him? Tea didn't know what to do.  
  
"Help," she prayed softly, looking around. This was very bad. She was lost somewhere in the country on what appeared to be a freight train car, and Seto could not be awakened. What was she going to do?  
****  
Meanwhile, the other teens gathered at Yugi's to try figuring things out.  
  
"So . . . eh, where's Marik?" Joey asked, looking around.  
  
"He's here," Yugi replied slowly. "He's been in the guest room ever since we got back from the museum. I think he's feeling pretty down."  
  
"I can imagine," Bakura said quietly. "It must be terrible for him—not even being able to remember his own sister."  
  
Yugi nodded. "But that's not all," he said. "I think Marik may be starting to remember something frightening that happened to him." Marik had explained to Yugi earlier that he had woken up in the hospital being told that he had been in a car crash, but he couldn't remember how that had happened.  
  
And of course Yugi couldn't forget what his Yami had told him—that Marik knew a secret that affected the entire world. Yugi didn't want to burden Marik with that information, but he was worried. Very worried.  
  
Joey clicked on the radio absent-mindedly.  
  
"Hello, and welcome to KETY," the DJ was saying. "K-80's—Domino City's leader for all those classic tunes from the eighties! This hour we bring you our All-Request Line! Call in and request your favorite!"  
  
Tristan sighed. "Man, everything is so confusin' around here," he said in frustration. "We have the mystery of what the heck happened to Marik. We've got the mystery of who's stalking us."  
  
"And we have the mystery of where the heck Tea is," Joey remarked.  
  
"Great Scott! Tea's missing?" Bakura gasped.  
  
Yugi nodded. "Joey and I have been trying to call her, but she's not home," he said worriedly.  
  
On the radio the deejay took another request. "Hello, you're on the air with Joltin' JP," he greeted. "What's on your mind?"  
  
The caller gave a strange, muffled laugh and spoke in an obviously disguised voice. "I want to hear 'Every Breath You Take' by the Police and dedicate it to Yugi Muto," they announced.  
  
Everyone turned to stare at the radio as if it had suddenly sprouted horns. "What did that weirdo just say?!" Joey cried.  
  
"And I want to give him a message too," the caller continued. "I'm always watching you, Yugi Muto!!!" With an odd cackle they hung up.  
  
"Well . . . that was . . . interesting," the deejay remarked slowly, trying to laugh. "I guess Yugi Muto has a secret admirer out there somewhere!"  
  
"Secret admirer nothing!" Tristan said, shaking his head. "That was a warning!"  
  
Yugi concurred.  
****  
Marik was sitting on his bed, staring out the window. Every few seconds, it seemed, he was getting an odd flash of memory—but the things he remembered weren't about his life . . . at least he didn't think they were.  
  
What he saw were vague shadows and what he heard was strange chanting. He couldn't make heads or tails out of any of it, but it kept filling his mind until it was the only thing he could think of. It seemed almost as if he had been propelled back into the scene and was in that dark chamber instead of in his room at the Muto's.  
  
"What is happening to me?!" he cried, covering his ears and closing his eyes and trying in vain to block out the offensive sounds and images. "Stop!! Stop!!!" he yelled, falling off the bed and to the floor below.  
  
Horrible images began filling his mind—images of people being tortured. The sounds of their screaming. What was this?!  
  
"What's goin' on with Marik?!" Joey exclaimed in the living room. "He sounds like someone's attackin' him or somethin'!"  
  
Yugi was already running to the door. "Marik, what's wrong?!" he called, knocking hard.  
  
Marik didn't seem to hear him. "Stop!!" he screamed again. "I want no part of this!! Stop!!"  
  
"Man," Tristan said, coming to the door, "he acts like he's gone totally mental!"  
  
Yugi rushed in and knelt next to him. "Marik!" he cried, laying a hand on the other boy's shoulder. "Do you know where you are?"  
  
Marik struggled to get free. "Unhand me!! I won't be a part of your plan!" In his mind he was being taken captive by a guard who'd seen him watching the strange ritual and the torturing. "Let me go!!"  
  
Bakura watched Marik fight against Yugi in horror, his soft brown eyes wide.  
  
"Marik!! It's me—Yugi!" the violet-eyed boy exclaimed, trying to get Marik to calm down. "You're in my house, Marik! You're with friends!"  
  
Marik stopped struggling and lay there on the floor, breathing hard. The illusions—the memories—stopped, and he slowly realized where he was.  
  
"Marik? Are you okay?" Yugi asked worriedly.  
  
Marik looked up at Yugi and the others and nodded. "I am alright," he said at last.  
  
"Man, what the heck was goin' on with you?!" Joey burst out.  
  
Marik shook his head. "I . . . I am not sure," he admitted, looking frightened. "I . . . I felt as though I had been transported somewhere else."  
  
The other teens looked at him and then at each other, not sure what to make of that, but knowing it wasn't good.  
****  
Tea looked around in the darkness, feeling panicky. "Kaiba, why won't you wake up?!" she cried in despair. After examining him, she had discovered a bad bump on his head, but if that was the only reason he was unconscious, why hadn't he woken up when she'd shaken him?  
  
Maybe he had a bad concussion, Tea worried now. But if he did, would his pulse be normal? She was so distressed at the moment that she couldn't remember what she had learned in her first aid course.  
  
Of course Tea was also nervous about where they were going. Were they even in the same state? How long had they been on the train? Did the others realize that she and Seto were missing?  
  
By now her eyes had adjusted dimly to the darkness, but she still couldn't see very well. "Kaiba, I'm worried about you!!" she burst out. "Please, can't you just wake up?!"  
  
The boy remained almost deathly still, but Tea could hear his soft breathing. With a sigh of despair, she resigned herself to a longer wait.  
****  
After Marik was calm again, Yugi spoke to his Yami in concern.  
  
~What do you think he saw, Yami?~ Yugi asked.  
  
Yami Yugi was silent for a time, then finally replied, **He was recalling something that really happened to him, Yugi.**  
  
~But what was it, Yami?~ Yugi was very worried.  
  
**Remember what I told you, Yugi,** Yami Yugi said grimly. **Marik knows of deadly secrets. They have been locked away in his mind, and now he is starting to remember them.**  
  
~I wonder what he saw,~ Yugi mused. ~He seemed so terrified. . . .~  
  
**I do not know exactly what he saw,** Yami Yugi replied, **but it was ominous . . . strange . . . and horrific,** he finished.  
  
Yugi shuddered.  
  
"Hey, Yug, what's up?" Joey asked, startling the boy out of his mental conversation.  
  
"Oh . . . I was talking to my Yami," Yugi explained, but didn't say more.  
****  
Marik slowly drank a cup of hot chocolate, trying desperately to block the images and sounds—screams—out of his mind. The blood . . . the torment . . . the agony. . . . The memories were scattered, but still potent enough to send Marik into fits of horror, and the tears fell from his eyes.  
  
"Make it stop!" he wailed. "Please!" He clutched the mug so tightly that it was a miracle it didn't break. "I . . . I can't take it any longer!!" Why was he being bombarded with these terrible remembrances?! He wasn't the one who had ordered those people to be tortured, was he? No, no, that couldn't be true!  
  
"You're next."  
  
The grim voice's meaning was clear—it was saying that Marik would be tortured as those in his visions had been. The utterance echoed throughout the room and Marik looked around wildly. "Who are you?!" he cried, but received no answer.  
****  
Tea wrung her hands nervously. How long had she been awake now? It seemed like ages ago that she had discovered that she and Seto were in this freight car.  
  
Seto suddenly moaned and stirred, moving his hand across the floor.  
  
Tea perked up, laying her hand over his. "Kaiba?" she said hopefully. "Oh, are you awake?"  
  
Seto was awake, but he couldn't seem to figure out what was going on. He had a bad headache and his neck was hurting. And it was completely dark around him. "Huh?" he asked, blinking.  
  
"Kaiba, you've been unconscious," Tea said shakily, "and we're on a moving train!"  
  
Seto sat up slowly, "train" striking a memory in his mind. He remembered being hit over the head viciously out at the railroad station. Just as he'd been passing into oblivion, he had heard a voice saying, "I'll just give him a shot of this, too—it'll keep him out for a long time!" The boy's eyes narrowed. He'd been drugged. He remembered feeling the prick of the needle in his neck.  
  
"If we're on a train, we should try finding a door," Seto remarked now, starting to stand up. Hurriedly Tea tried to assist him, but he gently brushed her hand away.  
  
"Kaiba, I couldn't wake you up!" the girl cried in frustration. "You should let me help you. You might be hurt terribly!"  
  
Seto grunted. He didn't especially want to tell Tea what he had remembered had happened to him.  
  
"Kaiba, you might have a bad concussion!" Tea persisted, still trying to help him.  
  
"I don't." Seto started to feel along the wall, searching for a door. "I was drugged, Tea. That's why you couldn't wake me." He found what seemed to be a handle and began to pull on it. "Stand back," he told Tea coldly, and the girl complied.  
  
Soon Seto had managed to get the panel open, and fresh air rushed through the yawning gap. "What are you trying to do, Kaiba?!" Tea demanded, watching fields and trees fly past.  
  
Seto's hair blew around in the wind, and Tea could see his deep blue eyes watching her seriously in the dim light from the moon outside. "If we've been abducted, there's no telling what they'll do to us when we reach our destination," he explained. "Our best chance is to jump." 


	11. Strange Man

Tea stared at Seto in disbelief. "What?! You want to jump out of here?!" She watched the scenery fly by at a speed she didn't even want to think about.  
  
Seto gave her an amused smirk. "We'll have to wait for the train to slow down first, or we'll both fall to our deaths," he replied, turning to look at the countryside.  
  
Just as they started to pass a meadow, the train began to lose speed.  
  
"We're heading for a hill," Seto told her. "We have to get off—now."  
  
Tea grabbed Seto's arm. "Are you sure about this? Maybe you're not thinking straight after getting that knock on your head!"  
  
"I'm thinking perfectly straight," Seto grumbled. "Now listen to me. When you jump out, you'll have to immediately curl up and roll to avoid serious injury."  
  
Tea gulped. "Well, if it's the only way . . ."  
  
"It is." Seto turned to the open door. "I'll go first. You follow right after me."  
  
Tea watched Seto leap out, and then shakily stood in the doorway herself. "Here goes," she muttered, and found herself taking a spill through the air. With a scream, she came to a halt across Seto's back.  
  
The boy grunted. "Get off," he ordered, and Tea obeyed, backing off of his shoulder blades and kneeling next to him. Seto rolled over and sat up.  
  
"Are you alright?" Tea asked pointedly.  
  
"Fine." Seto looked Tea up and down and decided that she was fine as well.  
  
"Now we need to figure out where we are," Tea remarked. The area seemed to be completely deserted, and it was nighttime by now. Far off in the distance, a strange howl started up. "What was that?!" Tea exclaimed.  
  
"Don't worry about it," Seto replied, getting to his feet. Tea shakily stood up as well, hearing the howl again.  
  
"Is that a wolf?!" she demanded.  
  
"I told you not to worry about it. Now come on. We should look for a road." Seto turned to go.  
  
Suddenly the familiar sound of a shot rang out and Tea shrieked. "Someone's shooting at us!!" she cried.  
  
Seto turned to look and saw several men with pistols leaning over the railing of the train's caboose. "Come on," he said grimly, grabbing Tea's hand. "We'll disappear in those trees over there."  
  
****  
  
Yugi hung up the phone, looking worried. "Tea's still not home," he exclaimed.  
  
"Man, where the heck would she be?!" Joey cried.  
  
The phone rang abruptly and Yugi heard his grandfather answer the extension in the kitchen. Soon he came to the doorway, looking concerned. "Yugi, that's Mokuba on the phone," the elderly man reported. "He wonders if you've seen his brother."  
  
Yugi blinked. "Kaiba's missing?!" he exclaimed, grabbing the phone in the living room. "Hello?"  
  
"Yugi, have you seen my big brother?" Mokuba pleaded. "He came home from school and said he was going to his office, but when I called, they said he'd never got there!"  
  
Yugi gasped. That was bad, but he didn't want to frighten the younger boy. "I haven't seen your brother," he said at last, "but don't worry, Mokuba—we'll find him!"  
  
"I hope so," Mokuba quavered. "I don't know where he might have gone!"  
  
After they hung up, Yugi turned back to the others. "Kaiba's missing too," he reported grimly.  
  
"Eh, you think there's a connection?" Joey wondered.  
  
"You mean did they go off together?" Tristan said smirkingly, and he and Joey started to laugh.  
  
Yugi shook his head. "This is serious! I'm sure they *are* together, but not the way you're thinking!" He stood up. "Come on, guys. We've gotta go look for them!"  
  
Joey stifled another laugh. "What about Marik?" he wondered.  
  
"I will come with you." The boy stood in the doorway resolutely. "I don't want to stay here tonight." He was tired of being plagued by those horrid images, and he hoped that with something important to do, it would block them from his mind.  
  
"Are you sure you should?" Joey asked, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, what with all those weird guys tryin' to off you . . ."  
  
"I will be fine," Marik interrupted. "I'm not a coward and I'm a good fighter. They just took me by surprise before. But they won't again." Of course he had been baffled and upset (and still was) by the ex-Rare Hunters' actions, but now he would fight against them. They had no right to treat him like this, not when he had repented!  
  
"Well then . . ." Yugi summoned his Yami. "Let's go!"  
  
****  
  
Tea ran into the woods with Seto, not even bothering to pull her hand free from his grasp. She was much more worried about escaping those assassins and she definitely did not want to get separated from the boy. "They're still coming!" she cried, seeing the men jumping off the train and running after them.  
  
Seto's eyes narrowed. He wasn't sure why those people wanted them dead, but he'd worry about that later.  
  
A bullet clipped a tree next to him and bark rained down abundantly over the two fleeing teens. Seto brushed a piece out of his bangs in annoyance.  
  
Suddenly Tea screamed as she stumbled over a pit in the ground and went down. Seto turned around, looking irritated. "What happened?!" he demanded.  
  
Tea struggled to stand up but couldn't. "I think I twisted my ankle," she gasped, ducking as a bullet flew by. "Kaiba, you have Mokuba to think of. Just go on without me," she insisted, trying again to rise and failing.  
  
Seto also ducked as a bullet passed, narrowly missing his shoulder. Without a word he scooped Tea into his arms and turned to run again. "Don't protest," he muttered.  
  
Tea felt a bit awkward, but she had to admit that she was also very grateful.  
  
Seto ran across the meadows and through the woods, dodging bullets and then vanishing behind a large boulder in order to see what their assailants would do. "Stay quiet," he muttered, and Tea was only too happy to comply.  
  
They could hear the voices talking among themselves. "Where did he go?" one of them growled.  
  
"He can't be far," another declared. "Fan out!"  
  
Without another word, Seto turned and disappeared into the darkness, still carrying Tea in his arms.  
  
"What are you going to do?" the girl asked.  
  
Seto didn't answer. He wasn't entirely sure himself. As he darted through the trees, a rifle was suddenly pointed directly at them, and Tea gasped.  
  
"Don't move a muscle or I'll blow you to Kingdom Come," a nasty-sounding voice growled.  
  
****  
  
Ishizu found herself having a strange and unclear dream. She saw Marik fighting an unknown enemy in what seemed to be a fiery furnace. "I will not allow you to win this time," Marik vowed, and he and the shadowy spectre he was battling with struggled over the Millennium Rod. With a loud, metallic clang the Rod fell to the ground below, and then one of the figures fell off the platform and into the flames.  
  
Ishizu sprang up, breathing heavily. "Marik!" she screamed. Somehow she knew it was her brother who had fallen to his death. But was this something that would be . . . or only something that might be? She had to find Marik . . . immediately.  
  
Quickly she climbed out of her bed and got into her off-white dress. As she adjusted the thick gold belt, she knew she needed to check in on Rishid before she left. She hadn't wanted to sleep, but Shadi had insisted. And she had felt so worn out that she had finally agreed.  
  
Slowly she walked down the hall to Rishid's room. As always, the door was open and Shadi was sitting in the chair next to the bed. Rishid was laying unconscious and still. He hadn't seemed to have changed position from earlier. Ishizu sighed sadly as she looked.  
  
"Marik needs you more right now," Shadi said quietly. "And Rishid needs his brother, even if Marik doesn't remember everything. You must bring him. It will be safe enough now, but more dangerous if he does not come."  
  
Ishizu knew he was right. Gently she took Rishid's hand and spoke to him softly in Egyptian, telling him that she was going to get Marik now and that he had to hang on for the both of them. Then she straightened up, melancholy, and smiled a thank you at Shadi before leaving.  
  
****  
  
The other teens met in downtown Domino City two hours later, out of breath and frustrated.  
  
"Man, we've looked everywhere!" Joey cried.  
  
"We have too," a female voice said, and Mai and Mokuba appeared from out of the shadows. The others were startled.  
  
"How did you two wind up here?" Yugi wondered.  
  
"Mokuba called me after he'd talked to you," Mai replied with a little smile. "He said he figured you wouldn't let him come on the search because it might be dangerous, so I agreed to help him look."  
  
"We didn't have any luck!" Mokuba wailed.  
  
"Neither did we," Yugi admitted grimly. "Let's split up again. Some of us should report this to the police while the rest of us continue looking. I'm afraid there's the possibility that they were both kidnapped."  
  
Bakura agreed to go to the police station with Mai and Mokuba, while Joey and Tristan and Yugi and Marik split into two groups and continued the search. "We'll meet back here in another two hours," Yugi directed, praying that they would have success in the search.  
  
****  
  
Seto glared into the shadows, holding Tea protectively. "Put the gun down," he ordered.  
  
There was a long pause. "You're just a kid," the voice exclaimed, lowering the firearm. "What in the name of Heaven are you doing on my property?!"  
  
"Someone's trying to kill us!" Tea cried.  
  
"There's two of you?" The man shined a flashlight at them. "What goes on around here?!"  
  
"What town is this?" Seto demanded, ignoring the man's question.  
  
"Eh? You been drinkin' or something?" the man asked, squinting at them.  
  
"I don't drink," Seto replied coldly.  
  
"Please help us," Tea begged. "We were kidnapped and just managed to escape a few minutes ago!"  
  
The man blinked. "Kidnapped, eh?"  
  
"And she's hurt," Seto added sternly, indicating Tea.  
  
"Alright," the man sighed, "come with me." He turned and walked toward his house, Seto following closely.  
  
"I'd better not regret this later," the boy muttered, having a strange feeling about what they were getting into.  
  
Tea concurred.  
  
When they reached the man's home, he told them that they were in Lincoln—quite a ways from Domino City. "There's not much to see out here," he said. "It's a pretty small community, but for some reason I always get vandals invading my yard," he added angrily.  
  
He gestured at his living room couch. "Just lay your lady friend down there and I'll go find my wife," he said as he left the room.  
  
Seto's eyes narrowed at the term 'lady friend,' but he complied and positioned Tea on the couch. Somehow, something still didn't feel quite right—and when he saw Tea's eyes all wide and frightened, he knew she sensed it too.  
  
****  
  
Yugi ran down the street, Marik in tow. No one had seen Seto or Tea anywhere, and Yugi was very worried. By now he absolutely suspected foul play.  
  
"What if I am the reason they are missing?" Marik cried in despair. "What if my enemies found out that I am staying with you and they abducted your friends as punishment?" The sickening images had entered his mind again, much to his dismay, and he couldn't get rid of them no matter how hard he tried. He had the feeling that the ex-Rare Hunters wouldn't be above hurting others to get at him. But he couldn't know that poor Rishid was hurt because of them.  
  
Yugi shook his head. "No, Marik," he said gently. "That wouldn't even make sense!"  
  
"Nothing makes sense!" Marik retorted.  
  
"This is not your fault," Yugi said firmly.  
  
"And where are you going so late at night?" a familiar voice asked.  
  
Both boys whirled to see Weevil standing outside Duke Devlin's shop, watching them.  
  
Yugi didn't have time for greetings. "Weevil, have you seen Tea or Seto Kaiba?" he demanded. "They're both missing, and I strongly suspect something is very wrong."  
  
Weevil shrugged. "I haven't seen them," he said abruptly.  
  
At that moment, Duke came out of the shop looking concerned. "Did I hear right, Yugi? Tea and Kaiba are gone?" He started upon seeing Marik. "You?"  
  
Yugi blinked. "That is a very long story," he said in reference to Marik's presence. "But yeah, Tea and Kaiba are gone. I don't suppose you've seen either of them?"  
  
Duke put the 'Closed' sign on the door and then turned back to Yugi. "I did see them, actually—both of them!"  
  
Yugi perked up. "You did?" Marik also looked hopeful.  
  
Duke nodded. "I saw them after school this afternoon. They were walking down the street together and trying to appear inconspicuous, but I'm pretty sure they were following some guy."  
  
Yugi's eyes narrowed in concern. "What did the man they were tailing look like?"  
  
Duke paused, thinking. "I couldn't see him very well, but he seemed to be middle-aged, with broad shoulders and black hair."  
  
Weevil listened to all of this with goggle-eyed interest. "Why would they be following someone?" he demanded.  
  
Yugi shook his head, ignoring him for the time being. "What direction were they heading in?"  
  
"They were going north," Duke replied. "Can I help you look for them?"  
  
Yugi smiled. "Your help is welcome."  
  
Weevil didn't offer his help, but he followed them curiously.  
  
Suddenly a dark figure stepped in front of the four boys threateningly. "Your search is pointless," he declared. "Those you are looking for are dead!" 


	12. Mysterious Symbol

Yugi and the other boys stared at him in disbelief.  
  
"'Dead'?" Yugi cried. "What do you mean?"  
  
The man shook his head. "They have met an early demise."  
  
"How do you know this?" Yugi demanded. He didn't want to believe this stranger.  
  
"I saw them being lifted into a freight car," the man replied, throwing back his dark hood. His face was haggard and tired and he looked much older than he actually was. "They were not moving."  
  
"What's going on around here?!" Weevil cried, but he was still ignored.  
  
"Couldn't they have just been unconscious?" Yugi said, his eyes narrowed.  
  
The man paused. "These people are ruthless. I don't know why they wouldn't have killed your friends. They have killed others."  
  
"When did you see this?" Yugi demanded.  
  
"Around four-thirty or five," the man replied, turning to go.  
  
"Wait!" Marik cried. "Who are you?!"  
  
The man turned back, his eyes fixing on the Egyptian boy in startled shock. "You!" he gasped.  
  
Marik blinked. "I do not know you," he declared.  
  
The man gave Marik a hard look. "Keep saying that, boy, but it won't save you from those other people. I'm running from them too, but they'll find me eventually." With that, he disappeared into the darkness. Marik stared after him, his heart pounding.  
  
"That guy was weird!" Duke exclaimed.  
  
Yugi nodded. "Duke, will you go report this to the police?"  
  
Duke nodded. "I sure will!"  
  
"Marik, will you accompany him?" Yugi asked.  
  
Marik nodded as well, and the two boys hurried off.  
  
"Will someone explain what's going on around here?!" Weevil screamed in frustration.  
  
Yugi shook his head. "I have to get to the railroad yard. Unless you want to come along, I can't stop to explain things."  
  
Weevil watched Yugi run off, then slowly disappeared into the shadows and followed.  
  
****  
  
Tea watched nervously as the woman examined her ankle.  
  
"Don't worry, honey," she chuckled. "I used to be a doctor." She looked up. "Luckily for you, it's only a mild sprain—nothing serious. You should be able to walk it off, as long as those terrible people don't try to kill you again!"  
  
"That's a relief," Tea smiled.  
  
Seto crossed his arms. "I need to use your phone," he said abruptly, prompting Tea to glare at him for not speaking more politely.  
  
The woman didn't seem taken aback, however. "Sorry, our phone's out of order," she replied flippantly, straightening up. "I'll go find some gauze for your ankle, honey," she said to Tea, and left the room.  
  
Seto stood in the center of the room, his arms still folded over his chest, his thoughts a mystery.  
  
Tea rubbed at her ankle. "What's going on in your mind, Kaiba?" she demanded.  
  
Seto grunted. "We need to get out of here. These people are not what they seem to be."  
  
"They seem nice to me," Tea retorted. "You're always suspicious of everyone, Kaiba!"  
  
Seto didn't look pleased at the comment. "Their phone is working fine. I heard the woman talking on it not five minutes ago, before she came in to examine you." The boy glared out the door. "I doubt she's really getting gauze right now."  
  
Tea was horrified. She knew she still felt a feeling of foreboding, but she had hoped that these people were not involved.  
  
Seto started wandering around the room, looking for another way out. He hadn't told Tea everything. When he had heard the woman on the phone, she had been saying something about killing the boy who looked like their "master." The pieces still weren't fitting properly, but Seto gathered that perhaps Seth had somehow gotten a group of followers to assist him in his plan until he could retrieve his powers. Seth had probably ordered them to kill Seto when they found him so that he would then be free to attempt manipulating Mokuba for his evil purposes. The boy's blood boiled at the thought. Seth had to be stopped! Somehow Seto planned to disarm the couple and then demand to know everything. Without another word, he grabbed Tea and pulled her into the shadows.  
  
"Kaiba, what are you doing?!" Tea demanded.  
  
Seto sat Tea down gently on an ottoman in the corner. "Stay quiet," he whispered. "I'm going to see what they're up to."  
  
The door slowly opened.  
  
****  
  
Joey and Tristan ran down the deserted streets frantically as snow began to fall on Domino City again.  
  
"Man, this is bad," Tristan remarked, shielding himself from the flakes. "They've been gone for ages!"  
  
Joey nodded. "I hate to think what they've gotten into. . . ."  
  
Tristan concurred.  
  
Suddenly a frantic-looking woman ran toward them, her blue eyes wide with worry. "Joseph! Tristan!" she called, and the boys stared at her in confusion.  
  
"Ishizu?" Joey exclaimed. "What's wrong?"  
  
"Where is Marik?" Ishizu cried.  
  
"Last we knew, he was with Yugi," Tristan replied.  
  
"I must find him," Ishizu said grimly.  
  
"Sure," Joey said as they resumed walking. "Hey, I don't suppose you know where Kaiba and Tea are, do you?"  
  
Ishizu shook her head. "I do not." She knew they were missing, and that they were in danger, but she had no knowledge of their current whereabouts. She only knew that she had to find her brother and make certain that he was still alright. And bring him home.  
  
****  
  
Bakura, Mai, and Mokuba, meanwhile, had met up with Duke and Marik on their way to the police station and exchanged their stories. Duke tried to gloss over what the strange man had said, but Mokuba could read between the lines—and he was horrified.  
  
"Oh, my brother's hurt!" he wailed. "He must be!"  
  
"We will find him," Marik said in determination. "And Tea as well!" He looked at Mokuba curiously, wondering who this child was. Mokuba looked back, blinking. It took some explaining from Marik, Duke, and Mai before Mokuba understood Marik's current situation. And he felt sympathetic toward the poor Egyptian.  
  
When they arrived at the police station, they were led to see Detective Burton, who seemed intensely interested in the case even though he was already involved in about half a dozen projects when they arrived.  
  
"If your friends and family were taken prisoner on a train, I will go out personally to find them," he declared, shuffling some papers on his desk.  
  
Marik, who had been standing in the back of the group, suddenly saw something startling to him and gasped without meaning to, recognition dawning in his eyes.  
  
Detective Burton snapped to attention. "Who are you?" he demanded.  
  
Bakura, sensing that Marik should not be introduced, stepped in front of the Egyptian boy before Burton could see him clearly and tried to smile. "Well, thank you for your concern about our missing friends," he said, not sure why he felt uneasy.  
  
Burton didn't reply and continued to try peering around Bakura and Duke to see Marik. Quickly the group backed to the door and eased themselves out.  
  
"That was weird," Mai commented.  
  
Marik was practically hyperventilating, his lavender eyes wide with fright.  
  
"What is wrong with you?!" Duke demanded.  
  
Marik shook his head, trying to get himself under control. "We . . . we cannot trust that man," he said at last.  
  
"What?!" All eyes turned to stare at him.  
  
"What do you mean?!" Mokuba cried. He wasn't sure exactly what to think of Marik yet. He believed Marik had repented, but the two of them didn't really know each other that well.  
  
Marik took a deep breath. "He . . . he was wearing a ring with a strange symbol on it," he explained. "I . . . I remember that symbol from somewhere." He paused. "It's used by an evil cult!"  
  
Everyone gasped.  
  
"Whatever we do, we cannot allow him to look for Kaiba and Tea," Marik continued. "He probably already knows where they are, and if we let him get away to go to them . . ." He trailed off, not wanting to scare Mokuba. But his meaning was clear—the man's intentions were most likely ill.  
  
"Let's hide in the bushes and wait for him to come out," Bakura directed after a silence. "Then we can follow him in Mai's car."  
  
Everyone agreed and disappeared into the shrubs by the front doors.  
  
Mokuba's heart was pounding. He knew that his brother—and Tea—were likely in very serious trouble, and he was saying a frantic prayer that they would be kept safe—and that they'd be able to catch this man before he did any further damage to them.  
  
****  
  
Yugi and his Yami arrived at the railroad yard nearly thirty minutes later and they looked around for any possible clues.  
  
"Stay close, Yugi," Yami Yugi said grimly. "There could still be someone lurking around."  
  
Yugi whole-heartedly agreed. Suddenly he glanced down and gasped, finding one of Tea's scarfs. "They were here," he declared softly.  
  
A rustling sound came from behind an abandoned freight car and both of them came to attention. "Who's here?" Yami Yugi called sternly. No answer, but the sound of someone running away through the weeds met their ears and Yami Yugi chased after the stalker while Yugi watched, wide-eyed. Yami Yugi soon caught up to the other person and brought them sharply to the ground. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" Yami Yugi demanded just as sharply.  
  
"Let me go! I ain't done nothin'!" Weevil's familiar voice cried.  
  
"You were spying on us," Yami Yugi retorted, surprised to find that the mop-haired boy was the spy. "Why?"  
  
"I wasn't spying!" Weevil insisted. "I . . . I was just in the area!"  
  
Yami Yugi slowly let the other boy up, glaring suspiciously at him.  
  
"Why are you here, Weevil?" Yugi asked, catching up to them.  
  
"None of your beeswax!" Weevil grumped, feeling around for his glasses. Yugi found and handed them to him, and Weevil accepted them without any indication of thanks. "And now if you'll both excuse me . . ." With that he stormed away, leaving Yugi and his Yami standing there in confusion and frustration.  
  
"That was odd," Yugi remarked. "Why would Weevil be following us?"  
  
Yami Yugi shook his head. "There are too many odd things happening to possibly keep up with them all. Let's try to find someone here who may have seen Kaiba and Tea."  
  
Yugi agreed, praying that his friends were okay—wherever they were.  
  
****  
  
The other teens waited impatiently in the brush for their quarry to appear, talking amongst themselves while they watched the front doors.  
  
"Why on earth would a policeman be part of a secret cult?" Bakura exclaimed.  
  
"I cannot imagine," Marik replied shakily, "but I know that symbol is their calling card. It is supposed to be known only to the members of the cult so that they can recognize other members."  
  
"You're not a member of this cult, are you?" Mai asked, not sure if she could put anything past him.  
  
Marik shook his head helplessly. "I don't know," he admitted. "But I don't remember anything more about them . . . at least not now." He suddenly remembered the strange man's comments to him and he had to wonder if he was, indeed, a member. How else would he know about their symbol?  
  
The door opened then and Detective Burton walked out, a determined and sneering expression on his face.  
  
"There he goes," Duke said grimly as they watched the man climb into his unmarked police car. "Let's go after him!"  
  
Mai produced her car keys and everyone climbed into her car. "Please hurry!" Mokuba begged. "We can't let him out of our sight!"  
  
"Don't you worry, kiddo," Mai smiled comfortingly. "We won't lose him!"  
  
****  
  
Tea watched, her eyes wide in alarm, as the man entered the room with the rifle again in hand. "Alright, you stupid kids," he growled when he couldn't see them, "where are you?"  
  
"I'm right here," Seto growled low, grabbing him from behind. The rifle went off into the ceiling, causing plaster to rain down. "If you wanted to murder us, why didn't you do it earlier?"  
  
The man grunted in reply, struggling to free himself. With an angry exclamation that Seto blocked from his mind, the man swung the rifle backward and clubbed Seto on the forehead. Dazed, the boy's grip loosened and he sank backward, trying to shake the cobwebs from his mind before he went under. With an evil smirk, the man raised the rifle at Seto's heart, knowing that he was too confused to fight back.  
  
Almost before she knew what she was doing, Tea sprang of the shadows. "Don't you dare!!" she yelled, throwing her boot at the man's head. "Get away from him!!"  
  
Seto sprang up now as well, blood running down his face, and again grabbed the wicked man. "Tea, get back in the corner!" he ordered.  
  
Tea stood frozen in horror as the two fell to the floor, grappling wildly for the firearm, which kept nightmarishly going off. She knew that Seto was probably going to get hurt, but she couldn't do anything to help him—not while he was fighting on the floor trying to get the upper hand. She hated the immense feelings of helplessness that washed over her, and she kept a constant prayer in her heart, pleading for the boy to come out of this alive.  
  
Furniture crashed to the floor and the two continued their violent fight. The rifle went off twice more, and then suddenly everything was distressingly silent. Tea picked her way around the fallen furniture, her heart in her throat. "Kaiba?" she screamed. She felt dizzy upon seeing blood on the floor and not knowing whose it was.  
  
When Tea finally rounded a couch, she was horrified to see both Seto and the man laying motionless on the floor. She could see that the man was bleeding from a leg wound, but that he seemed to be breathing normally. Seto's fate, on the other hand, was more unclear.  
  
Shakily Tea knelt next to the boy and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Kaiba?" she said again. "Are you hurt? . . . Please answer me!" She felt tears coming to her eyes. "Oh, please don't be . . ." She trailed off, unable to finish.  
  
Seto's eyes fluttered open. "I'm not," he said simply, smirking a little. He was alright; he had only been stunned for a few minutes after again being hit with the back of the rifle.  
  
Tea breathed a sigh of relief and helped him to sit up. Or at least she tried to; Seto wasn't extremely responsive to the idea of being assisted. "I'm so glad you're alright," Tea said softly. Seto didn't answer.  
  
"Enjoy it while you can." A disembodied voice echoed throughout the room, and both teens jumped up in shock. "Because before long neither of you will be alright!" 


	13. Danger Around Every Turn

Tea gasped at the threatening message, her eyes wide.  
  
Seto's eyes narrowed. "Seth," he muttered.  
  
"Who?!" Tea demanded.  
  
"An evil high priest from ancient Egypt," Seto told her grimly. "He's back."  
  
The man on the floor stirred, moaning in pain. The teens turned to look at him. "You stupid kid," he rasped when his eyes opened. "You shot me!"  
  
"You're wrong." Seto found a doily on a couch and used it to press against the man's wound. "You shot yourself while you were trying to shoot me!"  
  
The man growled and cursed at Seto in reply.  
  
"None of that," Seto ordered. "I want you to tell me why you were trying to kill me—and Tea."  
  
"I don't have to tell you anything," the man grumbled.  
  
"No, Henry—you do!"  
  
The tired voice came from the doorway, and everyone turned to see the woman standing there, looking exhausted.  
  
"I've had enough of all your cult nonsense," she declared.  
  
"Shut up, Betty," Henry snapped.  
  
"I won't!" Betty came in, setting a First Aid Kit down on a table. "I've been quiet about this for too long! And if you won't tell these kids what you've been doing, then I will! I've watched you ever since you went into this cult. You've become so self-centered and greedy that I hardly recognize you any more!"  
  
Henry only looked at the floor sullenly, refusing to answer.  
  
"Tea, call 911," Seto ordered, and Tea nodded and went to the phone. The boy looked up at the woman. "Now. Tell me everything about your husband's cult," he ordered.  
  
"I don't think so," Seth's nasty voice came, and the woman's eyes went wide as she began struggling with something she couldn't see.  
  
Henry stared in disbelief. "Quit tormenting my wife, you . . . you . . . you crazy spirit!!" he finished finally. An immense change seemed to come over him when he saw his wife in trouble.  
  
"You dare to speak back to me?" Seth returned menacingly. "I am your master, and you will obey me!"  
  
"Shut up!" Henry yelled.  
  
Tea made the emergency call and hung up. When she turned back to watch the goings-on, her eyes widened in alarm. She had never seen anything like what Betty was going through. She was screaming and yelling and trying to fight off an unseen assailant. It was so disturbing. . . .  
  
Betty cried out and collapsed to the floor, shaking. Henry was horrified.  
  
"Betty!! Oh, you were right!" he berated. "I don't want any part of your cult, Seth!!" he said hotly.  
  
Seth appeared then, a staff in his hand. "A little late for that, old fool," he sneered. "You're in too deep. And I never let my former followers go easily."  
  
"You psycho!" Tea yelled in contempt.  
  
Seth came over to her and ran a finger down her cheek. Tea pulled away in revulsion. "Henry was willing to kill the both of you to stay in my . . . organization."  
  
"I wasn't myself!" Henry cried. "I was possessed by greed!"  
  
"Yeah, well. . . ." Seto tied the cloth firmly around the wound once the bleeding had stopped, feeling disgusted at this man. "That doesn't happen unless you let it." He stood up and glared at Seth, who was trying to pull Tea closer to him. "Let her go!" he ordered.  
  
Seth's lips pulled back in a nasty smirk. "Oh, you want her, do you?"  
  
Tea's heart was pounding. She tried to pull away from the evil boy, but he had a viselike grip and it was impossible to get away.  
  
"I've been looking for a beautiful girl such as Tea for some time," Seth sneered.  
  
Seto grabbed Seth's arm. "Let her go!" he said again, fire in his eyes. It outraged him to no end when wicked people such as this priest took advantage of girls and children.  
  
Seth was unfazed. He chanted something in his ancient tongue and Seto cried out, collapsing to the floor as Betty had earlier.  
  
Tea screamed. "Kaiba!!!" She looked up at Seth. "What did you do to him?!"  
  
Seth sneered. "That was only a taste of my powers, which I have now regained," he muttered, kicking at Seto's dazed body. "If you want to see your lady friend—and your precious brother—again, you will have to challenge me once more!" he said, vanishing in a cloud of blue smoke with Tea.  
  
Seto stirred, pulling himself up with a groan. "Tea?" he mumbled.  
  
"That crazy spirit carted her off!!" Henry yelled, looking at Betty, who was also slowly recovering.  
  
Seto's eyes narrowed, recalling the priest's words. "Mokuba!!" he cried suddenly. Did Seth have Mokuba too?!  
  
Quickly he ran to the phone and dialed his home number. "Velma?" he said abruptly. "Is Mokuba there?"  
  
"Why, no sir," Velma replied in disbelief. "He left with Miss Mai Valentine. He was lookin' for you! Everyone's out lookin' for you and for Miss Tea! We've all been so worried . . ."  
  
"Velma," Seto interrupted, "when did Mokuba leave?"  
  
Velma paused. "Why, it must've been nigh to four hours ago!" she declared. "But where in the world are you, sir?!"  
  
"Lincoln," Seto replied, hanging up. He had to get back to Domino City immediately. Seth had Tea, and he might have Mokuba now as well! How would he rescue them?  
****  
Mai had kept a steady pace behind the police officer's car for ages now. She had also kept one car between them and him, and the man didn't seem to realize he was being followed. He seemed to be going deeper and deeper into an isolated area, and the teens had no choice but to follow.  
  
"Where is he going?!" Mai said in frustration as he turned onto a dirt road leading into the deep canyons. She struggled to see through the falling snow.  
  
Marik, in the meantime, was getting more flashes of memory—this time about the area. He couldn't remember when he had been here before, nor could he yet recall anything about himself—he only knew that this area was familiar for some reason.  
  
"Are you alright?" Bakura asked him, concerned.  
  
Marik was about to just nod, but then he decided to tell the truth and he shook his head instead. "I am not alright. I feel that there is a great evil in these woods, and that I am familiar with it."  
  
Bakura wasn't sure what to say to that.  
  
Suddenly Mai slammed on the brakes, sending everyone pitching forward. "I nearly ran that guy down!" she gasped, pointing to a cloaked figure running through the trees.  
  
"My goodness! How odd!" Bakura exclaimed. "What is he doing out in this weather?!"  
  
"Some of us should follow him," Duke declared, climbing out of the car. "Or at least I will. The rest of you should keep chasing Burton. You can't let him get away!"  
  
"I'll come with you," Bakura said firmly, and the two of them disappeared into the shadows.  
  
"I don't see that policeman now," Mai fretted, staring down the road.  
  
"That guy probably ran in front of us so we *would* lose him!" Mokuba wailed.  
  
"Keep going," Marik directed, and suddenly cried out in horror as another flash of memory came to him—that of a mangled body laying in the woods. "Oh!" The image was very graphic and horrid, and no matter how Marik tried, he could not block it from his mind.  
  
"What is it?" Mai gasped as she started the engine.  
  
Marik's eyes filled with tears. When had he seen such a terrible sight? Who was responsible? What if . . . what if he was? No, that couldn't be true!  
  
"What's wrong?" Mokuba demanded now.  
  
Marik shook his head. "It is nothing that you need to concern yourself with, child," he said with a weak smile.  
  
Mokuba bristled at being called a child, but he was much too worried about his brother to make a retort.  
****  
"Where is everyone?!" Joey cried, throwing his hands in the air. They had been waiting at the designated meeting place for almost an hour, and no one else had shown up. And it was snowing again.  
  
"They must be in trouble," Tristan said grimly.  
  
Ishizu didn't answer, but she felt that as well. She knew they had to be found—but how would they even know where to look? Please, dear God, she prayed silently, help us know where the others are!  
  
A brief vision came to her then—she saw trees, many trees—and she knew what she was looking at. "That is where we must go!" she said aloud.  
  
"Huh?" Joey and Tristan turned to stare. "Go where?"  
  
"The canyons," Ishizu told them. "Beyond the city."  
  
"Now what in the heck would they be doin' out there?!" Joey exclaimed, puzzled.  
  
Ishizu didn't answer. Quickly she led them to her car and they climbed in. They didn't see the dark-cloaked figures watching them in the shadows.  
****  
Yugi was intensely worried. He and his Yami had been all over the railroad yard, but no one was there—and certainly no one who could tell them where Seto and Tea were. Only God knew where they were now, Yugi said to himself solemnly.  
  
Suddenly a cold hand grabbed Yugi and pulled him behind a box car.  
  
"Hey!" Yugi gasped. "What the . . ."  
  
"Be quiet," Weevil grumped.  
  
Yugi was startled out of his wits. "Weevil?! What are you doing here?!" He couldn't have been more shocked if he had found himself facing the Abominable Snowman.  
  
"Shhhh! You'll alert everyone!" Weevil scolded. "I can't believe I'm doing this," he muttered, adjusting his glasses.  
  
"What *are* you doing?" Yugi asked, completely confused. He had thought Weevil had left the railroad yard ages ago.  
  
Weevil looked around furtively, then turned back to look at Yugi through narrowed eyes. "I'm warning you, Yugi."  
  
"Warning me?!" Yugi repeated. "Of what?!"  
  
Weevil crossed his arms. "It seems that you've made some more enemies, Yugi," he remarked. "I overheard some strange people talking about exterminating you."  
  
Yugi should have expected this, but still it came as somewhat of a shock. "When did you hear this?" he gasped.  
  
"Just a few minutes ago," Weevil replied.  
  
A twig snapped nearby and the two boys jumped.  
  
"Someone's here," Yugi said grimly. And it's not my Yami, he added to himself.  
****  
Bakura and Duke chased the retreating figure through the closely-knit trees.  
  
"Who on earth do you suppose he is?" Bakura cried as a stray branch slapped him across the face.  
  
"I can't imagine, but I'm sure he's up to no good!" Duke replied, looking around wildly. "There he goes!" he yelled, pointing ahead to a fleeing form darting through the trees.  
  
Quickly the two boys dashed after the strange person.  
  
"I can barely see through this snow!" Bakura exclaimed. "It's falling faster by the minute!"  
  
Duke didn't answer, instead looking grimly around.  
  
Suddenly the figure they had been chasing dropped out of a nearby tree, tackling Duke and bringing him to the ground! The boy wrestled with his assailant while Bakura watched, wide-eyed. Whoever Duke was fighting with seemed to have excellent skills, and the green-eyed boy found it extremely hard to get the upper hand.  
  
Finally he pinned his opponent to the ground. "Alright," he growled. "Now who are you and why did you jump in front of our car?!" He pulled back the person's hood while they struggled violently to get free, and then Duke and Bakura stared in shock.  
  
It wasn't a man at all—it was a woman, and on her finger was a ring with the same mysterious symbol that Detective Burton's had had!  
****  
Seto wandered outside to the couple's garage. Betty had told him to take their car to get wherever he needed to, and he intended to do just that. The ambulance had taken Betty away as well as Henry, but she seemed to be shaken up more mentally than physically. And Henry still refused to talk about his cult, even though now he didn't seem to want anything more to do with it.  
  
Slipping the key Betty had given him into the door, Seto opened it and climbed in. He still couldn't believe that Seth had actually taken Tea, nor did he understand how his ancestor had suddenly regained his powers. That staff must have something to do with it, he decided. He prayed that he would know the right thing to do to rescue Tea and Mokuba, and that they would be kept safe until he could.  
  
Before long he found the highway and was driving through the heavily falling snow. He quickly became aware of a strange, dark car that seemed to be following him. No matter which lane he switched into or how fast he drove, the other car always caught up to him.  
  
Then it was alongside him, and Seto tried to see who was in it—but to no avail, as the windows were tinted.  
  
It clanked into him without warning and Seto swerved wildly, narrowly missing hitting another car. He gritted his teeth and tried to regain control of the automobile, just as the ominous car banged into him again, forcing him near to the lake on one side of the road. It was obvious what they were trying to do—they wanted to knock Seto into the water! 


	14. Millennium Rod

Duke glared at the strange woman suspiciously. "Say something!" he ordered.  
  
With one might shove, the woman threw Duke backwards into the snow.  
  
"Oh my!" Bakura gasped, hurrying to help him up. "That was uncalled for!"  
  
"Punks," the woman grumbled. "I could get you both in serious trouble for assaulting an officer!"  
  
"Officer?!" the boys said in disbelief.  
  
"You're a policewoman?" Duke cried incredulously, realizing what this meant. There was more than one officer on the force who was in this cult. What did it mean? How many people in the city were involved with this?  
  
"That's right," the woman said, standing up.  
  
"Might I ask why you're wearing that dark cloak?" Duke demanded.  
  
"You can if you want, but I don't have to answer." The woman glared at him and Bakura. "I should be asking why you kids are wandering through the canyons at this time of night!"  
  
"Well, we're not doing anything wrong, so we shouldn't have to answer that," Duke retorted. They couldn't trust this officer.  
  
"Don't talk that way to me!" the woman growled, grabbing Duke by the front of his shirt. Bakura tried to apologize for his friend's comments, but the woman would have none of it. "I'm taking you both back to the station," she declared. "You can spend a night in jail!"  
  
"What if we refuse to go?" Duke grabbed the woman's hands and wrenched them away.  
  
"Then I'll add resisting arrest to your crimes," the woman replied sternly.  
  
Bakura's heart sank. He knew the woman wouldn't really take them to the police station. More than likely, she would try abducting them both.  
  
The Millennium Ring glowed and Yami Bakura came out, his slanted brown eyes full of annoyance and disgust. "You would be wise not to trifle with me," he growled. "Chain Energy!"  
  
"What the . . ." The woman gasped as strong gold chains bound her tightly, making it impossible for her to even move. Duke stared at her and then at the ancient tomb raider, who was smirking nastily.  
  
"Come, you fools," he ordered. "Now is the time to make our exit!"  
  
"Wait," Duke said, turning back to the woman. "You're in no position to argue, so tell us where you were going!"  
  
The woman struggled to get free in vain. "I don't have to tell you anything!"  
  
"No, but I do have more tricks up my sleeve," Yami Bakura sneered, "and most of them are far worse than a bothersome restraining device." He shuffled through his deck, looking for the Man-Eater Bug card to prove his point.  
  
"I know who you are!" the woman cried suddenly, causing the thief to pause and look at her suspiciously. "My master told me about you," she went on, fire glowing in her eyes. "You are after the same goal he is!"  
  
"Would someone explain what's going on here?!" Duke cried in disbelief.  
  
Bakura scratched his cheek. "Um, it's quite a long story, actually . . ."  
  
Yami Bakura moved in closer. "And who is your master?" he demanded.  
  
The woman smirked. "I will speak freely of him, for you have no hope of ever defeating him!" she said dramatically.  
  
****  
  
"That guy just parked his car and went into that cluster of trees!" Mokuba cried, pointing ahead. Mai had finally spotted their quarry again and they had chased him for what seemed like ages, and now he had seemed to have reached his destination.  
  
"Alright. Then we're going to follow him," Mai said in determination, hitting the brakes.  
  
The three young people climbed out, glancing around furtively. "I hope he hasn't been leading us into a trap," Marik remarked.  
  
"We just havta take that chance," Mokuba replied, narrowing his eyes. "We've gotta find my brother—and Tea, too!"  
  
Slowly they crept forward, making sure to keep Burton in sight through the swirling drifts of snow. Suddenly Marik tripped over something and he went down. "What in the name of Heaven . . ." he muttered. Both Mai and Mokuba turned to see if he was alright.  
  
Marik pulled himself out of the white powder, shivering a bit, and stared at the strange object he had fallen across. It was bright golden and shaped like a short staff, and a strange symbol graced the top.  
  
Mai gasped, recognizing it. "It can't be . . ." she whispered.  
  
Marik reached for it, confusion written across his face. Suddenly a bright light illuminated from the rod, blinding them all!  
  
****  
  
Seto frantically steered the car away from the road's edge, narrowly missing hitting another car head-on. The driver honked angrily at him at he swerved out of the way, but Seto ignored them as the mysterious car side-swiped him yet again, sending him skidding across the road and over an embankment!  
  
Seto tried to keep the car upright as it barreled wildly down the steep ravine, but it was proving to be very difficult. I can't die now, he said to himself, not while Seth is running loose and holding Tea and Mokuba hostage! He remembered Ishizu's words: "Because of your ties to this spirit, destiny has chosen you to defeat him." What if he was the only one who could?  
  
The car abruptly came to a halt at the bottom and the door flew open, sending Seto flying. Luckily, since he was wearing his seatbelt, he didn't go very far.   
  
He sat in the car for several minutes afterward, trying to get himself under control. He had very nearly been killed that time, and he had to admit, he hoped that those who attempted it didn't know they had failed. It would be easier to take them by surprise if they thought he was among the deceased.  
  
****  
  
Yugi and Weevil tensed as the footsteps grew closer. "Quick!" Yugi whispered, pulling Weevil under the boxcar. "We can't let them see us!"  
  
"I'm not some idiot. I know that!" Weevil grumbled.  
  
Two strange people came into view. "He won't be able to run forever," one of them muttered.  
  
"Of course he won't." The second one leaned up against the boxcar. "Ah . . . revenge is sweet. Poor 'Master'. . . ." He laughed wickedly. "We'll finally be rid of him after all this time!"  
  
Yugi's eyes widened. These must be a couple of Marik's old Rare Hunters! He longed to come out and tell these people that it didn't matter what Marik had done—there was no excuse for killing. And Marik's not the same anymore! he screamed in his mind. He's changed!   
  
The only thing keeping him from actually coming out and talking to the Rare Hunters was that he didn't want to put Weevil in danger. There was no telling what these guys would do if they found the boys under the boxcar. And what was more, why were they here in the railroad yard where Seto and Tea had disappeared hours earlier? It all seemed strange. He tried to listen some more to see if he could get any clues to anyone's whereabouts.  
  
"I don't think he'd be very happy if he knew we joined Seth's cult," the first remarked.  
  
"Probably not, but there's not much he can do about it," the second replied with a laugh. "We have the advantage now. Seth wants Marik out of the way as much as we do!"  
  
Yugi couldn't figure out who this Seth person was. He had never known anyone with that name, but he knew now that he had to find out who he was. ~Yami?~ he said through the mental connection. ~Yami, are you there?~  
  
**Yes, Yugi.** The reply came swiftly. **Where are you?**  
  
~Yami, I'm hiding under a boxcar with Weevil Underwood,~ Yugi told him, ~and we're listening to a couple of Marik's Rare Hunters! They're talking about someone named Seth!~  
  
**Seth?!** The name sent a jolt through the ancient pharaoh's body. Most of the memories of his life as ruler of Egypt were still scattered and unclear, but he remembered the name Seth. He knew that there was much evil connected with the person who held that name, though he could not entirely remember everything about him. **Oh no—not him!**  
  
Before Yugi could reply, the sneering face of one of the Rare Hunters was looking in at him and Weevil. "Well, well," he growled sinisterly, "what have we here?"  
  
****  
  
"What is that light?!" Mai cried, shielding her eyes.  
  
Marik stared at the rod, wide-eyed. Something strange was happening to him—his memories were being restored. He remembered his name. His sister Ishizu. His brother Rishid.  
  
He remembered his father. He had been an abomination, but he had still been the father and some part of Marik had loved him. Then someone had killed the man. . . . Marik saw that he had once believed it was a spirit that looked like Yugi. But then he had found out that it was someone very different. Someone dark and deadly.  
  
Suddenly he was bombarded with horrid images, remembrances of his past treachery. He saw himself mind-controlling the Rare Hunters. He saw him tormenting them with the Shadow Realm. And he saw how badly he had wanted revenge on the spirit Yugi knew. "No!" he cried. "No, it is not possible!" He collapsed to the ground, sobbing. No wonder that Brooklyn boy didn't trust him. No wonder that his old followers wanted him dead. "I do not deserve to live!" he said shakily. "I don't. . . ."  
  
Mai and Mokuba just stared at him helplessly, not knowing what was happening or how to comfort him.  
  
"What's wrong?" Mokuba asked finally, feeling concern starting to come over him. Marik seemed so alarmed. . . . Slowly Mokuba started to guess the truth.  
  
Marik was completely devastated, and his tears fell into the snow as he berated his wretched existence. Everything was clear now—he saw how terrible he'd been. Why had he survived that car crash? How could Yugi have ever shown him the least bit of kindness and mercy after everything Marik had done to him and to all his friends? Perhaps he had repented, but still . . . still. . . .  
  
Suddenly an evil voice echoed through the boy's mind. "You stupid cur! How could you have misplaced the Millennium Rod?!"  
  
Marik gasped. No . . . no, it couldn't be! Not him!  
  
A dark force took hold of Marik and he found himself fighting for control of his body. "Stop!" he screamed. It had seemed so long since he had had to deal with this nightmare. It was his Yami. The evil presence he had once created by accident from his confusion and rage. Marik now remembered that the Yami had been defeated once. But now, somehow, he had gotten back.  
  
"What's happening to him?" Mokuba cried, feeling frightened as Marik writhed in torment. Mai held him protectively, her violet eyes narrowed.  
  
Then the boy looked up, a nasty gleam in his once-innocent eyes. "At last I am free again!" he declared, raising himself up to his full height. "And now nothing will send me away! Especially not my ridiculous other side."  
  
Mai's eyes went wide. She could never forget that evil voice. "Mokuba, run!" she ordered, letting him go.  
  
"What?!" Mokuba cried as Marik grabbed Mai fiercely. "Hey!! Let go of her!!" he yelled.  
  
"Foolish child." Marik shoved Mokuba back into a snow drift.  
  
The younger boy looked up, brushing the snow out of his hair. "What happened to you?!" he demanded. "Have you been faking your amnesia all this time while you were waiting to get your Rod back?" It wouldn't surprise him, not after everything Marik had done in the past.  
  
Marik only laughed, dragging Mai with him while she struggled in vain to get free.  
  
The real Marik found himself imprisoned in a strange place. He was in his soul room, a place where he'd been locked before—and there was no way out. His Yami forced him in there whenever he felt the urge to carry out one of his wicked schemes. The last time he had been locked in was during the Battle City finals. Then Yami Marik had completely banished him from his own body!  
  
Marik sat down on the floor, his lavender eyes sad and full of defeat. His life was a nightmare. Anytime Marik had managed to make a friend, his Yami always seemed to scare them away. Marik had been alone for most of his life, with only his sister and brother to stand by him—and even then his Yami was always threatening to do things to them as well. He wanted Marik to be alone forever more, and he was doing a good job of making that happen.  
  
As Marik heard Mai's screams from somewhere outside, a determination began to grow inside him. He was tired of his Yami always controlling him, always doing his despicable deeds. Marik had been despicable himself before, but now he had changed.  
  
"Your days of using my body as a puppet for your evil schemes are over!" Marik cried aloud. "I will defeat you—permenantly!" Two things dawned on him then—Rishid must be hurt. Otherwise how could the Yami have gotten control? Always Rishid had held him at bay. Marik clenched his fists angrily, thinking of his poor brother laying somewhere, injured. And at the ex-Rare Hunters hands, no doubt!  
  
The second thing he realized was that he must have been so distraught over what he had been remembering that that was how Yami Marik had emerged from whatever realm he had been held in to take control again. That combined with Rishid's current state must have done it.  
  
Yami Marik laughed wickedly. "Idiot. You will never defeat me! You are too weak!!"  
  
Marik clenched his fists. "I shall defeat you," he vowed. "This time I shall." He knew that his Yami was no longer part of him. He was complete without this fiend. And he would not let this abomination rule his life anymore!  
  
****  
  
Mokuba watched Marik dragging Mai away, his gray eyes full of outrage—and of confusion. Something strange had happened to Marik when he'd found the Millennium Rod only moments before—that much was obvious—and now Mokuba needed the answer to a question: Was it Marik taking Mai away or was it his Yami? It did look like the blonde hair was starting to stick up strangely. Now Mokuba knew he had three people to rescue—Seto, Tea, and Mai.  
  
"Oh, big brother, I wish you were here!" Mokuba wailed sadly.  
  
A cold hand grabbed the little boy and jerked him against his bare chest. Mokuba let out a yelp, recognizing the evil touch. "Let me go!" he cried, kicking and flailing frantically.  
  
"Oh, poor little Mokuba," Seth's voice said smoothly. "This time your brother isn't here to save you. And you will have no choice but to come with me now!" His grip tightened.  
  
"I won't go with you!!" Mokuba screamed.  
  
"You have no choice," Seth repeated, squeezing Mokuba's throat in his fingers.  
  
Mokuba's eyes began to water. "Stop," he gasped, struggling for breath. Help, he prayed fervently. Please bring my brother. . . . He trailed off, blacking out.  
  
Seth let go of the boy's neck and carted him off through the trees, an evil smirk on his face. He may not have his Millennium Rod yet, but he would soon—and in the meantime, he did have his other scepter, and that was good enough for now. And once all of those kids were out of his way, nothing would stop him from conquering the world. 


	15. More Captures

"Man, I can hardly see a thing!" Joey complained as the snow flew onto the windshield.  
  
"At least you are not driving," Ishizu retorted. She knew something terrible had just happened to her brother and that she had to find him immediately.  
  
And then suddenly, there he was—standing in the middle of the road. Ishizu slammed on the brakes, horrified. She had nearly ran the boy down!  
  
"What's the matter with you, Marik?!" Joey yelled.  
  
"Yeah!" Tristan agreed. "Have you gone crazy?! We almost hit you!"  
  
Marik strode up to them, an evil glint in his eyes that they knew all too well. "You fools. Now you are all in my grasp, and I will never let any of you go!" The voice sounded much deeper than Marik's, but at this point the other boys were too stunned to realize.  
  
Tristan gaped. "What the . . ." His hazel eyes narrowed. "Whoa, Marik's turned evil again!"  
  
Joey was disgusted. "I saved your pathetic life! What kinda guy are you to turn around like this and . . ."  
  
"You know what kind of person I am," Marik sneered. "You shouldn't have ever trusted me."  
  
"Why you . . ." Joey's eyes flamed red with anger.  
  
"Joseph!" Ishizu scolded. "He has not turned on you. This is his Yami!"  
  
"Man, how can you tell?" As far as Joey was concerned, Marik was almost just as bad as the ancient spirit.  
  
"I know my brother," Ishizu said firmly. "He has changed since you knew him before."  
  
"Oh, have I? Let's see how well you know me after this!" Marik held up the Rod and it glowed, entrapping both Joey and Tristan under its mind-control powers. The boys cried out, trying to break free but finding it useless. "Take her away," Marik ordered, and the two boys pulled Ishizu out of the car and into the flying snow.  
  
"Do not try to fool me," Ishizu said sternly, struggling to pull free. "I know you are not Marik!"  
  
"What are you doing?!" the real Marik screamed in his soul room, banging on the door. "I won't let you hurt my sister! I won't!" Rage burned within him. The Yami was also taking away any hope Marik had of keeping Joey and Tristan as his friends! He wanted them to think it was Marik doing this! And now he was mind-controlling them both!  
  
"Just watch me, insolent cur," Yami Marik returned, forcing Joey to twist Ishizu's arm painfully. The woman cried out and the boys shoved her forward onto the snow-covered ground.  
  
Joey blinked, again trying to regain control. "Ishizu . . . I'm . . . I'm . . . sorry," he gasped, but then Yami Marik took over again. Joey roughly pulled Ishizu to her feet and Tristan grabbed her other arm.  
  
"Marik!" Ishizu cried, looking into the boy's wild eyes. "I know you are in there. I know you can overcome your Yami. I believe in you, dear brother!" She knew Marik was fighting. And she had to let him know she believed in him.  
  
"SILENCE!" Yami Marik roared, forcing Tristan to press a pressure point on Ishizu's neck. With a soft moan, the Egyptian woman fell unconscious.  
  
"Sister!" Marik screamed. "What have you done to my sister, you devil?!" His eyes flashed with anger. He was helpless, forced to stand by and watch this!  
  
"That's it," Yami Marik said in satisfaction, "I want you to feel anguished. I want you to feel pained. You deserve every bit of it!"  
  
Marik agreed that he should be punished, but not for the same reasons Yami Marik had in mind. "You cannot torment my sister to get at me!! She doesn't deserve to suffer!! She doesn't!!" He struggled to get free but couldn't. Sobbing angrily, he collapsed to the floor of his soul room. There was no escape.  
  
****  
  
Yugi struggled as he and Weevil were pulled viciously out from under the boxcar by the Rare Hunter.  
  
"This is ridiculous!" Weevil fumed. "Put me down!!"  
  
"Eavesdroppers, eh?" the man sneered. "Do you know what we do with eavesdroppers?"  
  
"These aren't just any eavesdroppers," the other man replied, grabbing Yugi harshly. "This one here is Yugi Muto. Seth's been wanting to get rid of him for a long time!"  
  
"What?" Yugi cried. "Why does he want to get rid of me?!"  
  
The men laughed. "You've been in his way for much too long, but I'll let him tell you all of his reasons himself," the first one sneered.  
  
"Let us go!!" Yugi cried.  
  
"I'll have you know, I won't stand for this!!" Weevil screamed hotly, kicking wildly.  
  
The Rare Hunters looked at each other. "Do we really want this kid too?" the second one wondered. "Seth didn't say nothin' about him."  
  
"No," the first said thoughtfully, "he didn't. But Four-Eyes here was eavesdropping too. Maybe he'll try spilling the beans to someone if we let him go." He shrugged. "Seth can decide what to do with him."  
  
Yugi's heart sank. This was bad, very bad. ~Yami!!!~ he cried frantically, before their connection was abruptly cut off by an unseen force.  
  
Yami Yugi, at the other side of the railroad yard, looked up in alarm when he heard Yugi's cry of panic. **Yugi? Yugi, can you hear me?** he called, but received no answer. Somehow, their mental bond had been severed.  
  
****  
  
Duke and Bakura exchanged looks as the woman continued to rant about her "master" and his plan for conquering the world.  
  
"I think she's more than a little nuts," Duke remarked, and Bakura had to admit he agreed.  
  
"Enough of your talk! Who is your master, woman?" Yami Bakura demanded, his eyes narrowing in irritation.  
  
The woman sneered, the ring on her finger suddenly glowing with a eerie, dark light. "Instead of me just telling you, why don't you just find out for yourselves!!"  
  
The two teens and the thief shielded themselves from the light. "What's happening?!" Duke yelled.  
  
Bakura didn't understand it either, but he felt himself growing weak. "Yami, help!" he said feebly, falling backwards into Yami Bakura's arms.  
  
"Foolish mortal," Yami Bakura muttered, but even he couldn't overcome the dark spell. He sank to the ground, still holding Bakura.  
  
The woman, breaking free of the chains, smirked nastily. "Now you are under my master's evil spell," she remarked.  
  
****  
  
Seto was driving down a dark country road, looking ahead with narrowed eyes. He couldn't risk anyone seeing him, so he was taking an alternate route to Domino City. Unfortunately, the snow made it difficult to see very far ahead, and Seto had to swerve at the last possible moment to avoid a reindeer in the road. "Of all the . . ." he muttered in disbelief. That had happened to him last month as well, but that time he had accidentally crashed the limo into a tree and knocked himself unconscious.  
  
This time he found himself on a different road—the one leading into the deep canyons beyond which lay Domino City—his destination. This canyon road was much more dangerous than the other one, however—but there was no way to turn back now. He would just have to continue on this road until he neared the town.  
  
But what if Seth wasn't in Domino City? The evil priest hadn't given any indication where he was hiding out, and Seto knew it wasn't likely that he was there. But where on earth could he look? He didn't have a single clue as to where an ancient wicked spirit would house.  
  
At least not until he saw a strangely familiar figure up ahead in the trees. Could it be? It looked almost like Cheryl, the corrupt police officer! After her antics the other night, Seto wondered if she could even be part of Seth's cult. Quickly he turned off the car's engine and crept outside, hiding amongst the shrubbery.  
  
Cheryl wasn't alone. Three cloaked men were assisting her in lifting three limp bodies out of the snow. Seto's eyes narrowed. He'd recognize that long, silvery hair anywhere—one of the motionless forms was Bakura. But what was Bakura doing in the canyons, and why was Cheryl abducting him? . . . And Duke Devlin? . . . And—Seto blinked in disbelief—Yami Bakura as well?!  
  
Something was very wrong, that much was clear. Seto decided to follow the group. Maybe he would find some important answers.  
  
****  
  
Tea lay on the floor of an old ship's hull, shivering—more from fear than the chill. She was frightened—very frightened—and keeping a constant prayer for help in her heart. Seth had just dumped her here ages ago and then had gone off again, leaving five fierce guards around to prevent any escape from the cold room.  
  
"Oh, what am I going to do?!" she wailed, wringing her hands in despair.  
  
Suddenly the door opened and Seth appeared, holding a small, limp form in his arms. "Another prisoner for you to amuse yourselves with," he smirked, depositing Mokuba on the floor in an ungraceful heap.  
  
Tea was horrified. "Mokuba!" she cried in alarm, taking the boy's body into her arms and holding him close.  
  
Seth smirked. "Ah, how touching." He raised his staff. "Perhaps I should give him a rude awakening, hmm?" Dark lightning flickered from the dark sphere on the scepter's top.  
  
Tea glared at him. "Don't you dare! Hurt me if you want to, but don't you lay a finger on Mokuba!" How eerie it was, she thought, that Seth looked so much like Seto Kaiba but instead was his complete opposite.  
  
"Noble." Seth held his staff in front of him. "But I'm afraid I want to put the both of you in torment!"  
  
A horrible pain enveloped Tea and she doubled over, screaming.  
  
****  
  
Mokuba awoke to Tea's cries and unbelievable pain shooting through his little body. At first he couldn't recall what had happened to him, but then he heard Seth's treacherous laughter. "What . . . what are you doing to us?!" he gasped, writhing in agony on the floor. He had never felt such horrible pain before!  
  
Seth sneered. "As long as I have this, your torture is in my capable hands!" he declared, holding the staff over his head.  
  
Mokuba screamed, shuddering uncontrollably. "My . . . my brother . . . will . . ." He paused, shaking. "He'll stop you!" he cried at last in a vehement voice.  
  
Seth laughed. "I don't think so. Here, let me show you what I mean." He strode up to one of his guards. "Try to take my scepter from me," he directed, stopping his captives' excruciating pain for the moment so that he would have their full attention.  
  
The guard looked uncertain. "Master? . . ."  
  
"Do it!" Seth ordered.  
  
Shakily the guard reached out and grabbed the staff. With a horrible scream, he flew backward and crashed near Tea, laying still. The girl gasped, seeing the deathly gaze of the man's vacant eyes. "Oh!" she cried, clapping a hand over her mouth in horror.  
  
Mokuba was likewise alarmed, his gray eyes wide.  
  
Seth kicked at the guard and then looked at his prisoners. "You see?" he cackled. "This is what will happen to anyone who tries to relieve me of my staff—including your brother! If he is so foolish as to try rescuing you and Tea, he will perish!"  
  
Mokuba's eyes filled with tears. "No!" he wailed. "Not my brother!!"  
  
Tea was also stunned at the thought, but before she could think of what to do, Seth resumed the physical torment. The screams rent through the otherwise quiet night.  
  
****  
  
Marik still remained furiously in his soul room, crying from despair and anger. What was he going to do? His Yami would kill Ishizu and the others—he knew it!  
  
"What shall I do?" he wailed. He had already tried to escape—multiple times— but it had never worked. Yami Marik had expected the boy to make an escape attempt and he had prevented every one of them.  
  
It is hopeless, Marik thought sadly. Everyone he cared about was going to die and he wouldn't be able to do anything to stop it! Even if he had defeated the Yami once, it didn't seem that it would work again.  
  
"Marik."  
  
The Egyptian boy looked up. That sounded like Ishizu! "Sister?" he called.  
  
"Listen to me, brother! You *can* defeat your Yami!" Ishizu's smooth voice came to him then. "I know you can!"  
  
"But how?" Marik cried. "He is unstoppable!"  
  
"That is only what he wishes you to think," Ishizu replied. "There are ways to overcome him, and I know you will find them!" Her voice began to fade away. "I love you, dear brother," she whispered. "And Rishid does as well."  
  
Marik was still for a while after that, and then he stood in determination, one last tear falling from his eye. "I will not let you down, dear Ishizu and Rishid," he vowed. "I will not let any of you down!" Again he had a bit of hope left in him. No matter what the Yami did, there had to be a way around it! Marik had to be able to get back in control of his own body! 


	16. No Hope ?

When Bakura opened his eyes, he discovered he was chained to the bottom of a thick pole. The icy wind whipped against his face and hands and he blinked in confusion. "Where . . . where am I?" he stammered.  
  
"I have no idea," Duke's voice came from the other side of the pole. "But I'm glad you're awake. I've been calling to you for a long time!"  
  
Bakura suddenly became aware of a soft rocking motion under his feet. "We must be on a ship," he exclaimed.  
  
"That's right, you fool," Seth sneered, and Bakura saw the evil priest standing in a box high above him. The crow's nest, the boy realized. "You're on my ship, and there's no hope of escape!"  
  
"But what do you want with us?!" Duke demanded. "We haven't done anything to you!"  
  
Seth laughed. "Bakura has something I want, and after I get it from him, I'll dispose of him—and of you, as well. I have seen how you and your friends have meddled with the forces of darkness in the past—but you will never defeat me! I am unstoppable!" He let loose with a maniacal laugh, and Bakura's eyes narrowed. The soft-spoken boy didn't get angry very easily, but he was upset now.  
  
"You're mad!" he declared, wondering what Seth had done with his Yami.  
  
Before he could ask, Seth sneered at him and raised his staff. "I think I'll have some fun before I eliminate you," he remarked, and then Bakura screamed in pain, straining against the chains.  
  
"What's wrong?!" Duke gasped, but then he was overcome as well. It felt like his entire chest—and then his whole body—was on fire.  
  
"Stop!" Bakura pleaded, crying out. "Oh please stop!!"  
  
"You are subdued," Seth remarked in sick delight. "But I don't think I'll stop." He raised the scepter again. "This party's just beginning."  
****  
Seto wandered through the snow-covered canyons in frustration. Somehow he had lost Cheryl and her henchmen in the swirling whiteness, and he had to find them again. Whether she was working for Seth or not, she was definitely up to no good.  
  
An abrupt rustling sound came from Seto's left and he whirled around just in time to encounter one of the cloaked men emerging from the brush. He held a deadly crowbar in hand and was obviously going to try killing Seto with it.  
  
Before he could attempt it, Seto had grabbed the crowbar and then elbowed the man hard in the stomach. With a gasp, the man let go of the weapon and doubled over. Seto took hold of his arm and wrenched it around. "Don't try that again," the boy growled. "Now, I want some answers, and I want them now. Who are you working for?"  
  
The man stared at Seto in seeming disbelief.  
  
"Does he look like me?" Seto demanded. "Say something!!" He shook the man fiercely.  
  
"Y-yes," the man stuttered at last, "he . . . he looks very much like you!"  
  
"Then tell me . . ." Seto grabbed the man by his cloak and pulled him toward him threateningly. "Where is he??"  
  
"I . . . I don't know," the man replied defiantly.  
  
Seto's eyes narrowed even more. "He's holding my brother and a girl hostage, and maybe some other people as well!" He looked into the man's angry brown eyes. "My brother is only ten! He's always depended on me, and I'm not about to let him down now!"  
  
Now that the man was over his initial shock at being overpowered by Seto, he seemed to not be willing to help him out in any way. "Too bad about your brother," he sneered, shoving the boy backwards into a tree and watching him sink to the ground. "You know what Seth does to his prisoners?"  
  
Seto picked himself up, glaring at the man but not speaking a word.  
  
"He likes to torment them just for fun." The man stood over Seto, his arms crossed. "Sometimes he uses his staff to do that, but other times . . ." His lips curled back in an evil smirk. "Other times, he likes the sight of blood. Lots of it."  
  
Seto clenched his fists. "Take me to your master's hideout," he ordered.  
  
"I don't see why I should." The man didn't move from his position, but he sneered nastily. "Unless you want to be his next prisoner. I bet he'd very much enjoy torturing you."  
  
Seto's eyes narrowed. "I won't be anyone's prisoner."  
  
"We'll see about that." The man suddenly lashed out and got Seto in a chokehold. Undaunted, Seto slammed him hard in the shin and he let go, crying in pain.  
  
"I told you not to do that again," Seto glared, grabbing the man viciously. "Now. You'll be my prisoner, and you'll take me to Seth's hideout whether you like it or not."  
****  
Ishizu awoke slowly, finding herself chained to the wall of an old warehouse. Joey and Tristan were standing guard over her and Mai Valentine, who was also restrained.  
  
"Come on, Joey," Mai was pleading, trying to use her feminine charms on the mind-controlled Brooklyn boy, "you won't really keep us chained up like this, will you?" She gave him one of her special winks, but Joey seemed unfazed.  
  
"Your foolish attempts at freedom are futile," he replied with a nasty smile. "I will never let you go!"  
  
Ishizu closed her eyes again, concentrating on trying to get through to the real Joey. "Joseph," she said softly. "Fight against his mind-control!"  
  
That was exactly what Joey was trying to do, but it was proving to be very difficult. He couldn't forget the last time he'd been controlled by Marik's evil powers, during the duel with Yugi at Battle City. "Come on, you jerk!!" he yelled out loud suddenly, regaining control briefly. "Quit foolin' around in my head!!!"  
  
Marik appeared then, standing atop a high ledge far above them. "You will never get away," he cried maliciously, raising the Rod high and entrapping Joey once again.  
  
Ishizu glared up at him. She knew the real Marik was trying again to overpower his Yami—and she believed he could and would succeed—but she also knew that Yami Marik would not go down easily. This would be an intense battle.  
  
Now Yami Marik pointed his Rod at Joey again. "You will all perish," he declared, making Joey hold up a knife at Ishizu threateningly.  
  
"Joey!!" Mai screamed in horror.  
  
Ishizu remained calm, looking deeply into Joey's vacant brown eyes. "Joseph, do not let him do this," she said softly.  
  
Joey didn't seem to be listening. He brought the knife to Ishizu's throat.  
****  
Yugi's heart was pounding as he and Weevil were abruptly shoved into the back of a van. One of the Rare Hunters stayed in there to guard them while the other climbed up front and started the engine.  
  
"Don't even think of tryin' to escape, you shrimps," the guard smirked. "That's not even an option!"  
  
Weevil's blue eyes narrowed in frustration. "Well, this certainly is a fine mess!" he grumbled.  
  
Yugi barely heard. He was trying desperately to rebuild the mental bond with his Yami, but it wasn't working. What am I going to do?! he cried in despair. I have to get us out of this mess! He prayed frantically for an idea.  
  
"Just where are you taking us?!" Weevil demanded of the guard.  
  
"You'll find out soon enough," he replied, crossing his arms.  
  
Yami Yugi was nearby, and he watched the van with narrowed eyes. He still couldn't reach Yugi through their connection, but he was sure that the boy was on board. He would just have to follow the van and see where it went.  
****  
Marik was sitting still in his soul room, hoping he could find just the right opportunity to take his Yami by surprise—but when the evil spirit made Joey attack Ishizu with the knife, Marik knew he couldn't wait. "Sister!!" he screamed, leaping up.  
  
Joey struggled to free himself from the mind control, the knife shaking in his hand. Ishizu watched him steadily, but inwardly her heart was racing.  
  
"I . . . I won't do this!!" Joey yelled, the knife lowering from the woman's throat.  
  
"Fool! You will do as I say!" Yami Marik growled, raising the Rod. Joey cried out, plunging the weapon into Ishizu's side before he could stop himself. The woman let out a cry of pain, blood flowing from the wound. She felt herself grow very weak.  
  
Mai was alarmed. "Joey!!" she screamed. "Stop it, Joey!!"  
  
"Silence her!" Yami Marik ordered.  
  
Joey struggled again to regain control, and Tristan did as well. I . . . I can't let that creep win! Joey said to himself frantically. If he does, everyone I care about will wind up dead!  
****  
The van came to a halt and Yugi and Weevil pitched forward.  
  
The Rare Hunter smirked. "We're here." He hauled Yugi to his feet.  
  
The other man came around and opened the doors. "Alright, punks, let's go!" he growled.   
  
Before anyone could stop him, Weevil was darting out through the open doors and between the man's legs. "Hey!! Come back here!!" the Rare Hunter yelled.  
  
"Not on your life!" Weevil grumped, running into the white drifts and disappearing into the trees. Yugi watched him worriedly, praying that he would get away.  
  
"What do we do about him?" the first Rare Hunter said in frustration, pulling Yugi out of the van.  
  
"Let him go," the second one sighed, shaking his head. "Seth didn't want him. But he does want Yugi Muto!"  
  
Yugi's heart pounded wildly. What would happen to him now? How would he be able to save the others? Were they alright? Where was his Yami? Would Weevil find help?  
  
So many questions, but no answers.  
****  
Yami Yugi was hiding behind a cluster of trees when Weevil tore past. The ancient pharaoh stared at him, wondering why he kept turning up at the strangest times. Swiftly he grabbed Weevil's jacket, preventing him from escaping. "Where did you come from?!" Yami Yugi demanded.  
  
Weevil struggled to pull free. "Look, a couple of odd people have Yugi. If you want to catch up to them, you'd better hurry!"  
  
Yami Yugi still held on. "Where are they going?"  
  
"I don't know!" Weevil insisted. "Let me go!!"  
  
Knowing that he definitely did need to hurry, Yami Yugi obliged and released his grip on Weevil's jacket. Then he disappeared into the closely-knit trees.  
****  
Tea looked up weakly as she and Mokuba were prodded up to the deck by three of Seth's henchmen. He had continued to torment them for some time with his staff, and then he had ordered another minion to beat them both viciously. Mokuba was hurt the worst—he could barely walk, and his gray eyes were dim and lackluster.  
  
"Why couldn't he have just killed me?" the boy bemoaned.  
  
"Don't talk that way," Tea scolded as they were both chained to the railing. "We'll find a way out."  
  
Mokuba shook his head sadly, tears falling from his eyes. "If Seto tries to rescue us, he's gonna die, just like that guard did!" He looked down sadly. "And . . . I'd rather it was me instead of him."  
  
Tea's heart broke. Mokuba's words were brave, and she knew he really meant them, but she could also see how terrified he was. He didn't really want to die either. Please, she prayed, help us get out of this!  
  
Suddenly she heard a commotion, and two men climbed up the ramp. Sneering malevolently, they dumped Yugi on the deck and looked up at Seth for approval. "Master, we have brought Yugi Muto!" the first one declared.  
  
"Excellent work," Seth nodded, also smirking nastily. "Yugi Muto—the descendant of my worst enemy," he mused. "I will find it very enjoyable to torture you."  
  
Yugi stood up shakily, ignoring Seth's words for the moment. "Tea! Mokuba!" he gasped. "And Bakura and Duke!" He blinked worriedly. "Are you all okay??"  
  
"We're fine, Yugi," Bakura said weakly, but Yugi could see that none of them looked fine.  
  
"This is terrible! I've gotta get you out of here!" Yugi exclaimed.  
  
"I don't think so, little Yugi." Seth crossed his arms. "No one can escape from my grasp this time—not even you!"  
  
"Guess again."  
  
Seth and everyone else looked up as Yami Yugi ascended the ramp and stood at the top, his violet eyes narrowed in righteous indignation and outrage.  
  
The evil priest's eyes glinted. "So you have decided to join us, O Mighty Pharaoh," he said in a voice dripping with hatred and malice. "This is turning out even better than I planned!"  
  
"I should have known that you were still wreaking havoc on the world with your abominable schemes," Yami Yugi remarked angrily, preparing himself for a fight. With a flash of light, he had merged with Yugi. "But it won't happen any more!"  
  
"Get him," Seth ordered simply, and his henchmen tried to make a move forward.  
  
Yami Yugi was unfazed. "Mind crush!" he yelled, and the minions dropped to the deck in a heap.  
  
Seth only laughed. "Bravo," he said, clapping mockingly. "But not even you are a match for my ultimate powers!" He raised his scepter high and chanted something in Egyptian. Before Yami Yugi could prevent it, he was writhing on the deck's floor in agony, his powers useless.  
  
"Yugi!!" Tea screamed in horror.  
  
Yami Yugi sprawled on the deck, gasping. "I . . . I can't move!" he cried.  
  
Seth smirked. "Of course you can't. As my worst enemy, your punishment should be greater than any of the others'. You will have to watch each of your friends die slowly and painfully, with no way for you to help them! All you will be able to do is just lay there helplessly and watch!" He raised his scepter. "There's no hope for any of you now!"  
  
"You're wrong."  
  
The voice came from a silhouetted figure on the ramp. His soft hair and his trenchcoat blew in the breeze, giving him a commanding appearance. The others couldn't see him clearly, but they didn't have to. They knew it was Seto Kaiba. 


	17. Fiery Prison

Seth didn't seem in the least surprised. "The great Seto Kaiba," he sneered. "So we meet again! I was expecting you."  
  
Seto stepped into the light of the early dawn, his blue eyes aflame with outrage.  
  
"Big brother!" Mokuba called out, both in delight and in worry.  
  
Seto turned to face the younger boy and then stared at him, horrified as he watched the blood drip over his brother's face and arms. "Mokuba," he whispered in alarm, rushing over and kneeling next to him. "Oh, Mokuba, what did he do to you?!"  
  
Mokuba looked up at his brother with his gray eyes, trying as much as possible to not show how much he was really hurting. "I'm alright, Seto," he said, managing a weak smile.  
  
"But not for long." Seth used his scepter to send Mokuba into another torrent of agony, and though the boy tried not to, a painful scream tore from his lips.  
  
Seto looked up in rage at his ancestor, who seemed to be entirely enjoying this sick display of his power. "You monster!" he yelled. "You filthy beast!!"  
  
Seth only laughed, using his sceptor again to make everyone around his descendant go into fits of torment. Seto couldn't stand to watch this any longer, nor could he bear to hear the painful screams. Without hesitation, he began to climb up to the crow's nest.  
  
"Big brother!!" Mokuba cried, tears adorning his face. "If you go up there, Seth will kill you!!"  
  
"That's right," Seth sneered, shooting painful lightning down at the boy who looked so much like him. "But of course I'd do that whether you came up here or not."  
  
Seto dodged the lightning and it struck Bakura instead. The boy cried out in pain, and Seto's eyes narrowed. "I'm not afraid to die," he said firmly. "But I won't drop dead until you've been stopped." He climbed into the crow's nest.  
  
"Foolish mortal boy." Seth shot electricity at Seto again and this time it did hit him, striking the boy on his shoulder. He clutched the injury with a grunt of pain and Seth laughed.  
  
"Seto!!" Mokuba yelled fearfully, and Tea's eyes were wide with horror.  
  
"Trifling with the likes of me is never a good idea," Seth hissed, and resumed torturing Mokuba and the others.  
  
Seto straightened up determinedly and grabbed Seth in rage. He refused to allow this to go on any longer, no matter what happened to him in the process. "Your reign of terror . . ." he snatched the scepter from the evil priest's hand forcefully, ". . . is over."  
  
Seth sneered as a burst of fatal electricity shot out and struck Seto squarely in the chest. With a heart-rending cry of pain, the boy fell out of the crow's nest and into the cold water below—Seth's staff disappearing with him. Bubbles rose to the surface with finality.  
  
****  
  
Joey was doing no better at regaining control of his body than he was before. Yami Marik's evil powers were forcing him to advance on Mai, wrapping his fingers tightly around her neck.  
  
"Joey! What do you think you're doing?!" Mai cried in panic. "Stop it, Joey!!"  
  
Ishizu was growing weaker by the minute from the stab wound she'd received. She knew that if she wasn't able to get free and stop the bleeding soon, she would die from the loss of blood. And now Tristan was trying to stab her as well.  
  
Marik knew this too and he fought against his Yami fiercely.  
  
"Stop it, you cur!" Yami Marik snarled. "You're making me loose concentration!!"  
  
"Good!" Marik replied fiercely. "Then I will make you loose it even more!! I will not let my sister—and my friends—die because of you! I am strong enough to overcome you, and I will prove it!!!" A blinding light issued forth and Yami Marik screamed in rage as he was forced back out of Marik's body.   
  
Marik looked up, finally back in control—his lilac eyes full of worry. "Cease controlling these minds!" he ordered the Rod, and the age-old Millennium Item glowed once more.  
  
Joey and Tristan snapped back to their normal selves, breathing heavily. Immediately Joey let go of Mai's neck, looking horrified. "Oh man. . . . I didn't hurt you, did I, Mai?" he asked worriedly.  
  
Mai shook her head, trying to calm down after the shock of what had happened. Quickly Joey began untying her from the wall, apologizing over and over.  
  
Tristan, meanwhile, was frantically trying to get Ishizu's wound to stop bleeding. "It will be alright," Ishizu said calmly. She was certain that she would be fine now, but she was still worried about her brother. She couldn't forget the strange nightmare she had had earlier. Marik was now on a high ledge. The nightmare could still come true.  
  
Marik watched all of these proceedings from up on the ledge. "Sister!" he called. "Are you alright?"  
  
"I am fine, Marik," Ishizu told him gently.  
  
"Man, haven't you caused enough trouble?!" Joey yelled, feeling overwhelmed with anger. "Just get outta here!! We were gettin' along just fine until you came back into the picture!"  
  
"Joseph!" Ishizu said sternly, feeling angry herself. "Marik has been trying to help us!"  
  
Marik hung his head. "No, he is right," he said softly. "I may not have been responsible for this, but I have brought about much evil in the past. He has no reason to trust me, no reason to believe that I have changed. And I have no reason to be alive." He dropped the Rod to the floor of the ledge. "I have brought everyone endless pain and agony."  
  
"No brother! That is not true!" Ishizu protested. "I love you, Marik! If you leave, that is what would cause pain and agony for me! And for Rishid!"  
  
Marik smiled tiredly, then sighed sadly. He didn't want anyone to be in danger from his Yami anymore. What was he going to do?   
  
Suddenly his Yami appeared in his separate form, his features contorted in rage. "You pathetic creature," he growled, wrenching Marik's arm around. "You can never defeat me! And now I will make certain that everyone you care about perishes!"  
  
****  
  
Mokuba, free of Seth's torture, screamed more pitifully than when he was being beaten. "Big brother!!!!" He stared into the icy water in disbelief, looking for some sign of his beloved brother—but there was nothing.  
  
Seth stared into the water as well, seemingly unfazed. "Just like what happened to the guard," he remarked, turning back to look down at Mokuba smirkingly. "Your brother has failed you!"  
  
"No he hasn't!!" Mokuba yelled, his eyes welling up with tears. "Seto . . . he . . . he sacrificed himself to save me and the others!" he said, trembling.  
  
The others were also free of Seth's evil powers, and Yugi stood up, his expression stern and forbidding. "Seto Kaiba saved us," he agreed. "His bravery will always be remembered." He tried not to let the tears fall from his own eyes. Now was not the time to cry.  
  
Seth wasn't impressed. "All he did was temporarily save you from my torture. I can still get rid of you all!"  
  
Yugi shook his head. "No, that wasn't all he did. He took your staff down with him to his watery grave. Because of that, I now have my powers back, and I won't hesitate to use them to banish you back into the Shadow Realm where you belong!" The third eye on his forehead glowed and he raised his right hand. With a scream, Seth was gone.  
  
Yugi stood still, breathing heavily, and then he began to untie everyone from where they'd been chained up, feeling drained and numb. He knew that the others—especially Mokuba—were feeling the same way.  
  
Mokuba again turned to stare in the water, tears falling uncontrollably from his eyes. "Oh Seto!" he wailed. "Big brother. . . ."  
  
Tea was crying as well, though she tried to look away so no one would see. Yugi could never have defeated Seth if Seto hadn't first gotten the evil priest's staff away from him. "Kaiba, you were so brave," she said softly, staring at the endless depths of the lake.  
  
Suddenly a familiar form broke through to the surface, coughing and gasping. Could it be? . . . It was! Seto was alive!  
  
Mokuba's eyes lighted up. "Seto!!" he cried in delight.   
  
The others were overjoyed as well, but they all knew that the other boy wasn't out of danger yet. The water was freezing, and Seto didn't look like he could hold out much longer.  
  
"Kaiba!" Yugi called, finding a rope and throwing one end of it overboard, "take hold of this!"  
  
Seto reached for the rope and grabbed it weakly, coughing again. He looked like he was barely alive. Yugi pulled him up in concern and then Seto collapsed on the deck, his strength depleted.  
  
Mokuba, Tea, and the others ran over worriedly, and Mokuba sobbed as he hugged the older boy. "Oh big brother!" he exclaimed. "You . . . you saved us!" He buried his face in his brother's chest. "I . . . I was so afraid that you were . . ." He trailed off with a hiccup and looked at Seto through tear-filled eyes.  
  
Seto smiled gently and brushed his brother's tears away. "It's alright," he said softly, drawing a ragged breath.  
  
Tea could tell that the boy wasn't doing very well. Seth's scepter hadn't killed him, but it almost had . . . and it still might finish the job. Gently she took Seto's cold hand in hers. "Don't leave us, Kaiba!" she wailed.  
  
Seto struggled to hold on, feeling his eyes grow heavy. He shakily laid his other hand on Mokuba's back, looking into his worried gray eyes. "I . . . I won't leave you," he promised, passing out.  
  
"Seto!!" Mokuba screamed.  
  
Tea also was horrified, feeling the boy's hand go limp. "Yugi," she said shakily, "is he . . . is he hurt . . . terribly?" She was actually afraid that he was dead, but she couldn't say that in front of Mokuba.  
  
Yugi knelt next to Seto, unbuttoning the other boy's shirt and exposing his chest. Then he bent down and listened frantically for a heartbeat. He bit his lip, trying to think of how to say what he had discovered.  
  
"Yugi?" Mokuba quavered.  
  
Yugi still hesitated. "He's still alive," he said finally, "but he took in a lot of water, and . . ." He paused again. "Seth's dark magic weakened him extremely." Frankly, he didn't hold out much hope that Seto would survive the rest of the night. Gently he pressed on Seto's chest and the unconscious boy jerked, coughing up water.  
  
Mokuba's eyes filled with tears. "Oh Seto," he whispered, embracing his brother gently.  
  
Yugi laid a hand on the little boy's shoulder. "Let's take him below deck," he instructed. Please, let him survive! he prayed.  
  
****  
  
The others watched in shock as Yami Marik appeared.  
  
"Whoa," Tristan gasped. "Maybe it really was him who was controlling us and not Marik! It did look like him. . . ."  
  
Joey watched them with narrowed eyes, still unconvinced. "They're probably both in on it," he remarked.  
  
Ishizu, pressing a scarf against her wound, glared at him. "Joseph, what will it take to convince you? Marik freed you and Tristan from the mind control!"  
  
"It is alright, sister," Marik said softly from on the ledge. "He does not owe me any trust. I have behaved atrociously before . . ." He trailed off as Yami Marik waved the Rod in front of him.  
  
"I've had enough of this nonsense!" the ancient spirit hissed. "Now I will entrap your soul in the Shadow Realm as you did to so many others and take control once again!"  
  
"Marik!!!" Ishizu screamed.  
  
Marik took hold of the Rod. "I think not," he said, his eyes narrowed. "You will never again use my body as your puppet!"  
  
The others watched with a mixture of shock, worry, and disbelief as Marik and his Yami fought for control of the Millennium Rod.   
  
Yami Marik shoved hard, nearly causing Marik to loose his footing.  
  
"You cannot kill me," Marik said, barely managing to regain his balance. "That would defeat your purpose!" He pulled on the Rod hard and Yami Marik backed up, pulling as well.  
  
"Hey!! Look out!!" Mai screamed, seeing something that the spirit obviously did not.  
  
Yami Marik ignored her, continuing to back up. As he gave a mighty yank on the Millennium Rod, he suddenly dislocated the lantern that had been hung up to light the room. With a crash, it fell to the floor below, and orange flames leaped at the walls.  
  
"It's a fire!!" Mai shrieked, trying the door and finding it was locked. "And we're all trapped inside!!" 


	18. Evil Defeated

Tea gently ran her hand through Seto's bangs, tears in her eyes. They had taken him downstairs and laid him on a bunk they'd found in one of the rooms. He didn't seem to be hypothermic, which was an added miracle to the fact that he was alive at all, but he also wasn't getting better from Seth's attack.  
  
"I think he has a fever," Tea said shakily to Yugi.  
  
Yugi nodded solemnly. "He's very ill, but it's likely not the water that caused it—it was Seth's staff. Kaiba should have died from the blast, and . . . the fact is, he really is nearly gone," he said softly.  
  
Tea choked back a sob. "Mokuba will be heart-broken if anything happens to him. . . . Isn't there something we can do?"  
  
Seto groaned, shuddering. Tea pulled the quilt up under his chin worriedly.  
  
"We're on a ship in the middle of a lake," Yugi said grimly. "There's no way to call for help, and we can't possibly get Kaiba off this ship until his condition improves." He turned to go to the door, where Mokuba was waiting for the news. "It's not really in our hands," he said quietly. Tea nodded, knowing that was true.  
  
The door flew open and Mokuba stumbled in. He was still weak from Seth's torture, but he was more worried about his brother. "How is he?" he demanded, taking Seto's cold hand.  
  
Yugi and Tea exchanged looks. "You can probably help him better than any of the rest of us could," Yugi said at last. "He loves you more than anything or anyone."  
  
Mokuba's eyes filled with tears. "You've gotta fight, Seto!" he cried.  
  
"You've come this far, Kaiba," Tea said shakily. "Don't give up now!"  
  
****  
  
Tristan gasped as the fire climbed higher and the flames took in more of the surrounding area. "Man, this is too much like deja vu," he muttered, trying to lead Ishizu away from the flames. He was remembering the time Yugi had been trapped in a burning warehouse after his duel with a mind-controlled Bandit Keith. Interestingly, he also remembered that that was the first time Marik had been involved with them at all.  
  
"Marik!" Ishizu screamed as Marik tried to flip his Yami over. She was terrified for her brother's safety. She couldn't forget her nightmare—the fiery furnace, Marik fighting with someone on a high ledge. . . . It was coming true.  
  
"SILENCE!" Yami Marik roared, clubbing Marik over the head with the Millennium Rod to get him to back off. The boy swayed dazedly, barely managing to catch his balance before he fell. "Imprison them once more!" Yami Marik directed, and the Rod glowed before Marik could prevent it.  
  
Tristan now grabbed Ishizu fiercely, trying to throw her into the flames. "Tristan! Stop!" she cried, trying to pull away.  
  
Joey took Mai and tried to do likewise with her. The embers leaped out at her and she had to duck to miss getting hit. "Let me go!" she yelled, struggling frantically.  
  
Tristan pushed Ishizu backward and the woman let out a shriek. "Fight the mind control!!" she cried, catching hold of a nearby shelf just before she would have fallen into the searing fire.  
  
"Joey, please!" Mai screamed in terror, looking into the boy's brown eyes. "Stop!!"  
  
Suddenly Joey blinked, his eyes becoming clear again. "Mai!" he gasped, pulling her away just as a beam fell from the ceiling and narrowly missed hitting her.  
  
Tristan's eyes also became clear. "We've gotta find a way out of here!" he cried, helping to guide Ishizu along. The woman was very weak from the wound and the rough jostling she had just gone through.  
  
"What is this?!" Yami Marik screamed, outraged that Joey and Tristan weren't carrying out his orders.  
  
"They are stronger than your powers!" Marik replied sternly, taking hold of the Millennium Rod once again.  
  
Yami Marik pulled it back viciously. "They are not! You will learn that you can never disobey me again! And neither can they." He raised the Rod again. "Every last one of them will perish, beginning with your sister!"  
  
****  
  
Seto thrashed on the bunk, his blue eyes wild and vacant. "Mokuba," he moaned. "Stop hurting Mokuba, you devil!!"  
  
Mokuba's eyes were wide. "Seto, I'm okay!" he wailed. "I'm right here, big brother!"  
  
Seto rolled over, breathing heavily. "Let him go!!" he yelled. "Go back to the infernal pit you came from and leave my brother alone!!" He tried to rise. Yugi immediately rushed over and tried to restrain him, but Seto jerked away. "He's only ten!!" he cried, rising up again. "He's just a little kid! You can't keep hurting him!!"  
  
"Please, big brother," Mokuba sobbed, "please lay back down! You're not well!"  
  
Gently Yugi pushed Seto back into the soft pillows. "He's in delirium," the short boy said grimly.  
  
"He's only ten," Seto said again, softer this time. A tear fell from his eye and trickled down his cheek.  
  
Mokuba was crying too. "Seto, I'm right here! Don't you know me?" He took Seto's hand pleadingly, but the older boy just gave him a blank look.  
  
Tea tried not to cry herself—she knew she couldn't. She had to stay strong for Mokuba's sake. "Please get better, Kaiba," she whispered low. "You . . . you have to!"  
  
****  
  
Bakura and Duke slowly wandered down the corridors of the ship.  
  
"What are we looking for anyway?" Duke asked, still feeling too weak to walk very far.  
  
"My Yami," Bakura replied weakly. "Seth must have done something to him!"  
  
"To your Yami? I'd have a hard time believing that," Duke snorted.  
  
Suddenly they were surrounded by a group of Seth's minions, with Cheryl in the lead. "Punks." She sneered in contempt. "You may have got rid of our master, but you still have us to deal with!"  
  
Duke backed up. "I don't like the sound of that," he muttered.  
  
Bakura nodded, backing up as well. What were they going to do?  
  
****  
  
Seto groaned, his strange cries echoing through the room. At first he had been reliving the horror of watching Seth torture Mokuba, but it became obvious that he was now remembering events even more far past. He was screaming Pegasus's name and yelling that he would defeat Yugi and that he'd then be back to defeat Pegasus as well in order to save his brother.  
  
"You're diabolically twisted!!!" he cried, thrashing wildly again, "and I'll make sure you pay for doing this to a sweet, innocent kid like Mokuba!!"  
  
"Seto, Yugi defeated Pegasus," Mokuba said shakily, holding Seto's hand. "Everything's okay now, big brother! . . . Or it would be if you could just come back to us," he whispered.  
  
Seto lay gasping for breath, his blue eyes glassy and only half-open. Tea held Seto's other hand and gently pulled the quilt up over his bare chest again. She could hardly stand to hear Seto going through this, and if she was feeling like that, how must Mokuba be feeling?  
  
"Yugi," Seto said now, drawing a raspy breath. Quickly Yugi came over to him. "Yugi . . . I . . . I'm . . . sorry . . . about . . ." He groaned again, and Mokuba's expression was one of horror and alarm. "About the . . . the duel on the castle roof. . . . I . . . I had to save Mokuba. . . . I didn't know what to do. . . ."  
  
Yugi blinked, feeling tears in his eyes. He had hardly ever seen Seto like this, so vulnerable and defenseless. "Kaiba, it's alright," he said softly. "I forgave you for that ages ago. I know why you did what you did. That's all behind us now."  
  
Seto didn't seem to hear. "Mokuba. . . . He . . . he was trapped in . . . in the decaying monster. . . . He . . . he was buried in the debris. . . . I . . . I couldn't save him. . . ." The boy was becoming increasingly agitated again. "I just let it happen! I killed him! I killed my brother, the person I love more than anyone!!"  
  
Mokuba couldn't stand it any longer. "No, Seto, no! It's just a nightmare, Seto!! It's not true!!! You saved me, Seto!! You saved all of us!!!" He sobbed, hugging his brother tightly.  
  
Tea and Yugi exchanged horrified glances. Yugi's said that Seto was very far gone. Tea's wondered how it could really be so.  
  
Seto still didn't recognize the surroundings, nor did he seem to know that anyone was actually there. "Forgive me, Mokuba," he choked out, and then fell disturbingly silent as his eyes closed wearily.  
  
Mokuba stared at his brother in disbelief. "Big brother!" he cried.  
  
****  
  
Bakura and Duke looked at the cloaked figures gathered around them with increasing uneasiness. They were too weak to fight, and what was more, there were only two of them and countless numbers of their enemies.  
  
"I think it's hopeless," Duke muttered.  
  
Bakura shook his head. "I'm afraid you may be right," he said softly.  
  
"Foolish mortals."  
  
Everyone turned at the sound of the voice. Yami Bakura was standing there, looking disgusted.  
  
"Yami!!" Bakura cried in relief. "You're alright!!"  
  
"Of course I'm alright, you dolt." Yami Bakura turned to face Cheryl. "Your pathetic group is no match for me."  
  
Cheryl only sneered. "I was able to defeat you single-handedly before, and I can do it again!"  
  
Yami Bakura held up a card from his deck. "Once I put this into action, there isn't a thing you can do to stop me."  
  
"We'll just see about that!" Cheryl cried, and all of the cloaked figures raised their ringed hands, preparing to unleash the darkness again.  
  
At the same time, Yami Bakura threw his card into play. "The Morphing Jar!" he yelled.  
  
"Morphing Jar?!" Duke repeated, wide-eyed.  
  
With screams of panic, the cult members vanished, leaving nothing behind but a stray cloak or two.  
  
Bakura was shaking. The sight of so many people disappearing and being sent to the Card Graveyard—even though they *were* evil—made a chill run up his spine.  
  
Yami Bakura gave him an odd look. "What's the matter with you?"  
  
Bakura shook his head. "Yami, you sent all of them to the Shadow Realm!" he gasped.  
  
Yami Bakura snorted. "They were going to murder you, you dolt," he said, putting his deck away.  
  
"I . . . I know," Bakura said slowly. "Thank you for saving us, Yami," he said with a smile.  
  
Yami Bakura grunted. "I need you to conquer the world. I had to save you."  
  
****  
  
Marik grabbed the Rod fiercely once more and refused to let go. "I will not allow you to win this time!" he vowed. Ishizu's eyes widened. Those were the exact words her brother had spoken in the dream she had had.  
  
"Marik!!" she cried. "Be careful, brother!!" The dream couldn't be fulfilled—it couldn't be!!  
  
Yami Marik growled, pulling again to free the Rod. "If I didn't need you in order to further my plans, I would do away with you right now!" the spirit growled.  
  
Marik's eyes narrowed. The flames were spreading quickly, and if he didn't get everyone out of there soon they would all perish. But he couldn't get them out until he defeated his Yami. "Evil will not prevail," he said solemnly, giving one final tug.  
  
Two things then happened at once. The Millennium Rod came free from Yami Marik's grasp and flew across the room, landing with a clunk of finality on the floor at Ishizu's feet.  
  
And Marik pitched backward off the ledge into the flames with a cry of pain while the others stood in shock and horror.  
  
Yami Marik's features contorted in rage as he watched the boy vanish into the inferno. His plans were foiled. With an angry yell, he disappeared into thin air. Where he went, this tale does not tell. But he was defeated again.  
  
Ishizu stood still, her heart beating wildly. "Marik!!!" she screamed, but she knew her brother had perished. The shock was too much. She slumped backward into Joey's and Tristan's arms in a dead faint. 


	19. Aftermath

Mokuba stared at Seto's lifeless body, his gray eyes wide. "Big brother . . . he . . . he can't be . . ."  
  
Shakily Tea leaned over and touched her fingers to Seto's neck, feeling for a pulse. "He's alive," she said after a moment, breathing a prayer of thanks.  
  
Mokuba relaxed, but only vaguely. "He's still hurt," he wailed. "What if he never wakes up?"  
  
"You can't think like that, Mokuba," Tea told him softly. She squeezed Seto's hand gently. "Kaiba, you can't let Seth win!" she whispered. "He wanted you to die. But we want you to live! Please . . . come back to us!"  
  
Mokuba embraced his beloved brother tearfully. "I love you, Seto!" he cried. "You . . . you've always been there for me before. If . . . if you leave me now, I . . . I don't know how I'll even go on!"  
  
When he still didn't get a response, Mokuba began to sob again as he hugged Seto. He knew Seto would have replied if he at all could have managed it. "I miss you, big brother," Mokuba whispered.  
  
****  
  
Joey stared in disbelief at the spot where Marik had vanished. "Man," he said softly, "maybe this time the guy really was on the level." He felt overwhelmed again, but this time with staggering guilt and horror. After everything he'd said . . . everything he could never take back . . . he saw that Marik had sacrificed himself for them.  
  
Mai and Tristan nodded slowly in agreement, trying in vain to peer into the flames and see some sign of life from their rescuer. There were no more screams from inside the inferno. Marik was dead.  
  
Tristan coughed suddenly, his eyes beginning to water. "Guys, we really have to get out of here," he said grimly. "We're all inhaling smoke, and Ishizu's hurt—maybe even seriously."  
  
"Marik wanted to save us," Mai added softly. "We can't let his sacrifice be in vain."  
  
"But how the heck are we even gonna get out?!" Joey cried. "The door's locked!" He doubled over in a fit of coughing, barely managing to still keep Ishizu's body supported.  
  
The teens stood for a quick minute that seemed like an eternity, trying desperately to think of something and praying for a solution.  
  
Suddenly Mai glanced at the floor and caught a glimpse of gold. "Marik left us a way to escape," she breathed, reaching for the Millennium Rod.  
  
"Hey, that's right!" Joey exclaimed. "There's a knife in that thing! We can use it to break the door down!"  
  
While Joey and Tristan held Ishizu steady and placed a handkerchief over her nose and mouth, Mai began to hack at the thick wooden door frantically. The door was stubborn and didn't seem to be breaking easily. Mai knew that this could take a long time—but she also knew that they didn't have a long time. A flaming beam fell from the ceiling and narrowly missed hitting Joey, Tristan, and Ishizu. Please, she prayed, help us get out of here!  
  
"Come on!" a voice encouraged then.  
  
Mai paused. "Huh?!" She looked around wildly. Who had spoken?!  
  
"You can do it!!" the voice told her. It was an odd voice, slightly accented. Mai had heard it before.  
  
"Hey, why'd you stop?" Tristan demanded. "We havta get out of here!!"  
  
Mai blinked. "Didn't you guys hear that?!"  
  
"Hear what?" Joey cried, shifting Ishizu's weight in his arms.  
  
"That . . . that voice," Mai replied shakily. "It sounded like . . ."  
  
"Marik," Ishizu whispered. "Dear brother . . ." She had heard it too. And she knew.  
  
Joey and Tristan exchanged Looks.  
  
Mai gave one final whack to the door and it shattered into splinters. Quickly the teens rushed out into the swirling blizzard outside, breathing in the fresh air.  
  
Ishizu, conscious now, pulled free of Joey's and Tristan's grasp and turned to stare at the warehouse. It was entirely engulfed in flames now, and then the roof caved in, completely demolishing the old building. Ishizu stared in disbelief, unable to tear her gaze away. "He is gone," she whispered. "Oh Marik . . ."  
  
"Man, the guy actually did somethin' good," Joey said softly. "He really did change."  
  
****  
  
Ishizu watched as the firefighters put out the blaze, feeling numb. Someone in a private plane had spotted the flames and called the fire department, but not in time to save Marik. But then, he had died almost as soon as he was engulfed in the flames. At least Ishizu hoped he had. The thought of him suffering a long, drawn-out, painful death was horrifying to her.  
  
She was lost in her own world now, remembering the past. Marik had done many treacherous things in his life, but he did have a better side too—a kind, sweet side that Ishizu had seen only occasionally of late—at least until her brother had repented after Battle City. Then he had once again been the dear boy she had known from years ago. And when he had gotten amnesia, he had been so innocent, unaware of the horrors he had seen and experienced. . . . Ishizu could only imagine his devastation when his memories had been restored and he had recalled everything that he had done. Marik had been so distraught that he had said it would be better for all concerned if he was dead.  
  
Ishizu shook her head sadly. "Oh Marik. . . . You don't know how wrong you were," she whispered. She couldn't imagine life without her brother. She prayed that he knew how much she loved him. He had been so selfless at the end, concerned only with defeating his Yami to save Ishizu and the others. And what would she tell Rishid now, if he ever regained consciousness? How could she tell him that their brother was dead?  
  
"Ma'am?"  
  
She looked up quizzically to see a firefighter standing in front of her. "Yes?" she asked.  
  
"Are you alright? I know what happened in there must have been terrible." The man took off his helmet and looked at her in concern.  
  
"I will be alright," Ishizu said softly. This man couldn't help her with her pain.  
  
"You must have inhaled a lot of smoke." The man continued to look at her. "You should probably go to the hospital to be treated."  
  
Ishizu glanced briefly over at Joey, Tristan, and Mai, who all just seemed to be standing around in shock as she was. "That will not be necessary," the Egyptian woman replied, turning away. "But thank you for your concern."  
  
"Ma'am?"  
  
Ishizu turned back again. Couldn't the man see that she wanted to be alone? She had just lost her brother and didn't feel like engaging in conversation.  
  
The man slowly reached into his pocket. "I . . . I found these in the wreckage," he said softly, handing her a pair of gold earrings. Marik's earrings.  
  
Ishizu caught her breath as she took the jewelry from the firefighter, her blue eyes shining with tears. To her, this said with finality that Marik was dead. He always wore those earrings. "Dear brother," she whispered, running her finger over them. Slowly she looked up again. "Did you . . . find anything else?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.  
  
The man shook his head. "Nothing else yet," he told her. "But it's going to take a while to go through all that."  
  
Ishizu nodded slowly, taking the earrings and preparing to leave once more.  
  
"I'm sorry," the man said sincerely.  
  
Ishizu nodded again, walking into the nearby cluster of trees and sitting on a stone she found. "Goodbye, dear brother," she said softly, and then the tears flowed freely.  
  
****  
  
Yami Bakura went back into the Millennium Ring and Bakura and Duke eventually found their way through the corridors back to where the others were. The thief hadn't been willing to tell them where he'd been, and Bakura had to admit that he hoped his Yami hadn't been getting into some kind of mischief.  
  
"You never can tell with that guy," Duke remarked, shaking his head. "But at least he was here when we needed him!"  
  
Bakura nodded, slowly opening the door to the cabin and going inside.  
  
Yugi looked up, relieved. "Bakura! Duke! We were getting worried about you guys," he declared. "Are you alright?"  
  
"We are now," Bakura replied, and he and Duke quickly explained what had happened while the others listened, wide-eyed.  
  
"With all the commotion, I'd actually forgotten that Seth's minions were still on board," Yugi admitted. "It's a good thing they were captured before they could hurt any of us," he added quietly.  
  
Tea nodded solemnly, turning to watch Seto with concern. The boy was laying lifelessly on the bunk, his head turned to one side. He was breathing slowly, his chest rising and falling with an almost imperceptible motion. Mokuba, of course, hadn't left his side. The little boy had climbed onto the bunk and snuggled next to his brother, praying desperately for him to revive.  
  
"Is he any better?" Bakura asked softly.  
  
"I don't know," Yugi said, shaking his head. Bakura and Duke didn't know that Seto had gone into delirium earlier, but Yugi wasn't about to talk about that in front of Mokuba. The poor boy had been so stricken to hear his brother's cries and strange comments that Yugi and Tea had been afraid that he'd have a breakdown himself. Mokuba was being incredibly brave about everything, but they could see how he was hurting.  
  
Seto shifted in his unconsciousness, startling Mokuba out of his angst-filled thoughts. "Big brother?" he asked hopefully.  
  
The older boy moaned softly, fighting against the death that was trying to take hold of him.  
  
"You'll come back to us, won't you, big brother?" Mokuba asked pleadingly, and Tea felt her heart breaking.  
  
"Mokuba."  
  
The little boy looked up, blinking. "Seto?" His brother was still unconscious, but Mokuba knew he had heard Seto call his name.  
  
"Of course I'll come back, kid." Seto's affectionate-sounding voice echoed through Mokuba's mind. "I promised I wouldn't leave you . . . and I'll keep that promise."  
  
Mokuba's eyes brightened. "Oh Seto!" he cried in delight, hugging his brother tightly. "I know you will," he whispered.  
  
The teens exchanged knowing glances. They hadn't heard anything, but Mokuba obviously had. The brothers had a special bond between them, and occasionally they were able to send and receive messages through their mental connection.  
  
"I think he's going to be alright," Tea said softly, tears of joy in her eyes.  
  
"I know he is!" Mokuba declared emphatically.  
  
****  
  
Ishizu didn't know how long she had been sitting on the stone when she heard Joey calling her name. She looked up as the Brooklyn boy came through the trees and found her there.  
  
"Hey, Ishizu . . ." Joey paused, not exactly knowing what to say. He ran a hand through his hair. "We . . . we were worried about you," he said at last. He wanted to apologize for treating Marik the way he had . . . but how would he apologize for that now? How could he ever apologize for it?  
  
"I appreciate your concern." Ishizu fingered the earrings in her hand.  
  
They stayed there in silence for quite some time before one of the other firefighters came through the trees. "Ishizu?" she said softly as she approached.  
  
Again Ishizu looked up. "What is it?"  
  
"There's something I really think you need to see," the girl replied.  
  
Ishizu stood up slowly. "What did you find?" she demanded.  
  
The firefighter paused. "Just . . . come with me, please," she requested, but Ishizu stood her ground, looking at the other woman suspiciously. Had they found what was left of Marik's body? If they had, then it was simply cruelty to make Ishizu come see. She couldn't bear to view her brother burned and scarred from the fire.  
  
Joey was apparently thinking the same thing as he glared suspiciously at the firefighter. "Hey, Ishizu's been through enough," the boy declared. "You should tell her what it is you want her to look at."  
  
"It's . . . kind of hard to explain," the girl replied softly.  
  
"If you have found Marik's remains, I would rather not come with you," Ishizu said stonily.  
  
"It's not that . . . exactly," the girl said slowly.  
  
"Then what is it . . . exactly?!" Joey demanded.  
  
"Please . . . just come with me," the girl implored again. "Trust me, you will want to see this," she said to Ishizu.  
  
Ishizu narrowed her eyes, but finally agreed. "Very well," she said softly, and the girl led her and Joey back through the trees to the debris left from the fire. Two other firefighters were kneeling amid the rubble, examining a limp body they had found. Ishizu knew it was Marik. She drew closer, feeling a sense of horror, and yet knowing that she had to see him.  
  
As she approached, however, she noticed something very strange and she drew in her breath sharply. Her brother was mostly unscathed. He had a serious cut on his forehead and another on his chest, but he had not been consumed by the fire. The boy had not a burn on him.  
  
Ishizu dropped to her knees next to him, her heart racing. "Marik," she said, her voice cracking. "Dear brother. . . ." She took his limp hand and held it tenderly, tears falling from her eyes. He was so still . . . but he looked as if he were only sleeping. . . . Just sleeping. . . .  
  
A painful-sounding breath rippled through her brother's body and Ishizu froze with a gasp. This was impossible!  
  
"He's still alive," the young firefighter said softly.  
  
"No way," Joey breathed. "That's impossible!"   
  
Tristan and Mai were likewise shocked.  
  
Slowly Ishizu came out of her trance. "He's alive," she whispered, taking her brother's body into her arms. This was nothing short of a miracle. There was no logical explanation for how her brother had survived the fiery tomb. Ishizu said a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord for preserving Marik's life. This all seemed so unbelievable . . . so unreal. . . . But it was real, she kept telling herself, brushing Marik's blonde hair away from his closed eyes and hearing his breathing. "Dear brother," she whispered again.  
  
The boy stirred then, his lavender eyes slowly opening. "Sister?" he said softly.  
  
Ishizu pulled him into an embrace. "Oh Marik!" she cried joyfully. Her brother had really survived! It was not just a wonderful dream—he was truly here!  
  
"Sister, what happened?" Marik asked weakly, looking confused.  
  
"You saved us, Marik!" Ishizu told him. "You defeated your Yami and saved us!" She paused. "But we thought you had perished. Marik, how did you survive?" she asked softly.  
  
Marik blinked. "It . . . it was Mother," he replied softly. "She shielded me from the flames."  
  
Ishizu drew her breath in sharply. Their mother had died years before. Marik had never even known her, as she had died giving birth to him.  
  
Marik now looked worried. "You are all alright?" he asked urgently.  
  
"Yes, Marik," Ishizu assured him, and she saw how pale and feeble he looked. "Rest now, brother," she told him softly. "You are weak. You must regain your strength."  
  
Marik nodded obediently, his eyes closing again as he slipped into oblivion. Ishizu held him close, still sending prayers of immense gratitude up to Heaven. Her brother was alive!  
  
****  
  
Seto had spent most of the morning in a strange state, not certain if he was dead or alive. His life had been playing out in front of his eyes—protecting Mokuba in the orphanage, them both being beaten viciously by their adopted father, him trying to save Mokuba from Pegasus. . . . And through it all he heard Seth's wicked laughter, tormenting him, taunting him. . . .  
  
Somewhere through this fog of confusion, Seto was vaguely aware that Mokuba, Tea, and Yugi were with him—or at least he thought they were. Maybe it was just an illusion.  
  
"Everyone hates you," he heard his evil counterpart sneer. "Just die. No one would care."  
  
Seto struggled to rise from the fog. He knew that wasn't true.  
  
****  
  
Mokuba still lay next to his brother's body, hugging him tightly. "It's gonna be alright, Seto," he whispered. "I know you're gonna be okay!"  
  
Tea prayed that was true. "Don't you dare die on us, Seto Kaiba," she said softly.  
  
"I love you, Seto," Mokuba declared, raising up and taking his brother's hand.  
  
Seto's eyes fluttered open a few minutes later and he blinked, looking confused. "Mokuba?" he called, sounding frantic. "Mokuba, are you here? Are you hurt?!"  
  
"I'm here, Seto," Mokuba said comfortingly, leaning into the older boy's line of vision. "I'm fine! It's you we've been so worried about!"  
  
Seto relaxed, smiling in relief. "Oh Mokuba . . ." He held his arms open and Mokuba scrambled into them, embracing his brother tightly. Tea and the other teens looked on, tears in their eyes and prayers of gratitude in their hearts. 


	20. Epilogue

Notes: Whee! It's been fun doing this little revision of parts of Stolen Memories. And very interesting. If you want a more detailed account of Rishid's recovery, check out Closer Than Brothers ^__^ Title comes because of the fact that Marik and Rishid aren't biological brothers, but I digress XD Anyway, I wrote that fic before I revised Stolen Memories, and now hopefully they both fit together even better ^__^ All hail sibling cuteness!  
  
  
  
  
  
Epilogue  
  
After everyone had gotten back to Domino City and had had a chance to recover from their experiences, they all gathered at Yugi's place to wrap up the final loose ends in the mystery. Even Rishid was there, having recovered from his horrible experience after Marik had came to him. He was still weak, but quite on the mend. Now he sat by Marik's side while Ishizu sat by the boy's other.  
  
"It's so good to see everyone here safe and sound," Yugi declared with a smile, looking at each of his friends in turn. Everyone was there, including Duke and even Weevil.  
  
"I just came for some answers," Weevil declared. "Such as, who were those crazy people who abducted me and Yugi?!"  
  
Quickly Yugi and Tea explained about Seth's cult, leaving out for the time being the part about Seth himself being an escaped evil spirit from the Shadow Realm.  
  
"I guess Marik must've seen some things he shouldn't have about their cult and that's how he wound up in the car crash," Joey remarked.  
  
"That is true," Marik nodded solemnly. "I . . . I was in the woods when I saw a most horrible sight—a mangled body laying in the snow. I couldn't imagine who would have been responsible for such a thing, but I daresay I soon found out.  
  
"Noticing a couple of cloaked figures in the distance, I decided to follow them. They led me to Seth's ship, where I saw many more gruesome scenes of torture." He shuddered, the horrid memories still fresh in his mind. "I had never seen so many examples of human torment before, and I was just leaving to report the atrocity to the police anonymously when I was accosted by several of the guards. When I tried to use my Rod to put them under mind control and let me leave in peace, they counter-acted it with a dark spell of their own.  
  
"I had also seen them using their dark magic to summon Seth from the Shadow Realm, and when he saw me—or rather, when he saw that I had the Millennium Rod—he told his slaves to kill me and take the Rod from me. I found a van that they'd been using and took off, but they quickly followed." Marik went on to explain that the chase had eventually led them down the highway at breakneck speed.  
  
"I do not remember crashing, nor do I recall loosing the Millennium Rod," Marik said now. "Perhaps I put it somewhere for safe-keeping until I could return for it and it wound up in the snow later on. But I cannot understand why no one else found it."  
  
"It is your destiny to have it, brother," Ishizu told him softly. "Therefore, you were the one to retrieve it."  
  
"I suppose so," Marik said slowly.  
  
Joey crunched on a potato chip loudly. "Why the heck were all of us bein' stalked?!" he demanded.  
  
Ishizu looked grave. "Seth's followers came from all parts of the city and from all walks of life. Seth wanted all of you dead anyway, and when he found that some of your past enemies were among his cult members, he was only too happy to let them attempt to get rid of you."  
  
Marik nodded grimly. Another of the secrets he'd uncovered was that many of Seth's followers were people thought to be respectable in the city—police officers, firefighters, even a member of the city council. Obviously that sort of news was very destructive, and it was one of the other main reasons that they had tried to eliminate Marik.  
  
"Kaiba, there's something I'd like to know," Tea said suddenly. She was sitting in between Seto and Yugi and didn't seem to mind that arrangement in the least. "Didn't you say you'd heard Betty talking on the phone right before she told us it wasn't working?"  
  
Seto nodded. "I did."  
  
"But she didn't seem to be mixed up in the cult," Tea said in confusion.  
  
"I know." It didn't make sense to Seto, either—that Betty was talking on the phone about killing Seto and then turned right around and tried to help him and Tea.  
  
"And why did those people kidnap the two of you?" Tristan wondered.  
  
Seto leaned back, holding Mokuba close. "Now *that* I can answer. They were trying to take us to Seth."  
  
Tea shuddered. "But they didn't know how to use dark magic, like some of Seth's cult members did, so they drugged us and threw us on a train."  
  
"What's going to happen with those people anyway?" Duke wondered now. "Bakura's Yami sent them all to the Shadow Realm!"  
  
Yugi looked serious. "Well, my Yami got them all back so that they could stand trial for their crimes," he said.  
  
Joey paused, blinking. "Hey, I just thought of something—what were those freaky notes that Yugi kept getting? I have a hard time believin' that Seth's cult members would be taking the trouble to break into the school and sneak them into Yugi's desk."  
  
Yugi glanced at Weevil, who looked away quickly. "Actually, I'm sure you're right, Joey," he said, continuing to look at the mop-haired boy. "I'm sure it wasn't them."  
  
"What are you saying?" Weevil grumped under Yugi's scrutiny. "Do you think *I* did it?!"  
  
"You said it, we didn't," Joey remarked, glaring daggers at the other boy. "Come on. Did you?"  
  
Weevil growled. "So what if I did? It didn't do any harm."  
  
"But why, Weevil?" Yugi asked.  
  
Weevil crossed his arms. "I only wanted to scare you a little," he replied. "And . . ." He smirked. "I wanted to see if you'd be smart enough to figure it out. I'd heard about your reputation as a detective and decided to test you."  
  
Joey clenched his fists. "Why you little . . ."  
  
Yugi held out a hand to stop his friend from making any sudden moves. "Let's not worry about it, Joey. After all, he really didn't do any harm, and he did risk his own safety to warn me of danger."  
  
Joey sighed in resignation and backed off.  
  
Marik looked at the floor. He had to admit, he felt a bit uncomfortable being with those whom he had tormented so much in the past. It would take some getting used to. All of them had apologized for not trusting him before, but Marik had told each not to feel badly, that they had no reason to trust him.  
  
Yugi looked at Marik worriedly. "Are you okay?" he asked.  
  
Marik's head snapped up. "I . . . I am fine," he replied softly, but Yugi could see that something was bothering him. Rishid laid a strong hand on his brother's shoulder.  
  
"Are you quite sure?" Bakura asked in concern.  
  
Marik sighed. "It is just that . . . that I have been so diabolical to all of you. I do not deserve your kindness."  
  
"But you're not the same person anymore," Tea said quietly.  
  
"That's right," Bakura agreed with a smile. "You've seen that your past behavior was terrible and now you've changed."  
  
"We've all seen that you're different now," Tristan said.  
  
Joey laid a hand on Marik's other shoulder. "Yeah, man. You saved our hides back in that warehouse, and you nearly got yourself killed in the process. You really have changed."  
  
Marik managed a slight smile. Yes, he had repented. And now it seemed he had friends after all. And of course he had his family. He would always have them.  
  
"Oh, speaking of the warehouse . . ." Mai paused, looking uncomfortable. "It was strange. . . . When I was trying to chop the door down with the Rod's knife, I could've sworn I heard your voice encouraging me," she said softly to Marik.  
  
Marik smiled. "You did. I had fallen unconscious by that time due to a harsh blow I received and also from the fumes that were all around me." Now he paused. "I don't know . . . it was odd, almost as if I had astral-projected myself somehow, but I saw you and the others trying to escape and I called out encouragement to you, praying that you would all make it out safely. Then I returned to my body, and I don't remember anything else until I awoke with Ishizu kneeling next to me."  
  
The others were silent as they digested this information, unsure of exactly what to say.  
  
Finally Yugi smiled and said, "Well, Joey's right—you have changed. And we all forgive you for your past wrongdoings. Isn't that right, guys?" The others all nodded in agreement. "You're our friend now, Marik," Yugi declared.  
  
Marik's eyes brightened and he smiled softly. "I will never betray your friendship," he vowed, thinking that perhaps his bout with amnesia had actually been a blessing in disguise.  
  
Ishizu was thinking the same thing. Marik had needed friends. Now he had them. If this experience hadn't happened, he might not have found them. She laid a hand on his with a smile and Rishid followed suit.  
  
Joey grinned. "Friends to the end!" he declared as he crunched on another potato chip. The others firmly agreed. 


End file.
